Wisdo’s OT goal sends Upper Dublin past Plymouth Whitemarsh

WHITEMARSH >> After the first half of play concluded in Thursday’s Suburban One League American Conference game, it appeared as if Upper Dublin was going to beat Plymouth Whitemarsh despite the 0-0 score.

The Cardinals ended up winning the game 2-1 but there was plenty of action that happened between the opening tip of the second half and the game-winning goal in overtime that came off the right foot of Upper Dublin’s Anthony Wisdo.

“We came into this game knowing it’s going to be a tough game, PW is always a good opponent of ours,” the senior captain said.

In the first half, Upper Dublin dominated the time of possession. The Cardinals controlled the ball in the PW zone and generated a handful of quality scoring chances.

Having weathered the first half storm by Upper Dublin, PW generated some offense of its own. The Colonials caught Upper Dublin in a couple of transition opportunities, which led to some good looks.

“I was really proud of our kids the way they came back in the second half and even in the overtime,” PW coach Jeff Heaton said.

Between not being able to break through on the scoresheet and the referees calling a tight game, Upper Dublin began to lose a bit of composure in the second half but regained it just enough at the right times.

“We knew (PW was) going to come out hard in the second half and we just didn’t match them,” Wisdo said. “Coach (Derek Priest) came over to us (at the start of overtime) and said ‘we know we can win this, we just got to put our minds to it and get out there and show it on the field.’”

With five minutes left until full time, UD’s Ryan Huggins capitalized on a fast break play as he finally broke the scoring drought in the contest.

Plenty of teams would have folded giving up a go-ahead goal so late in the contest, but the Colonials went to work. Gavin Hendrick collected a loose ball off a corner kick and tied the game up with a little over two minutes remaining in regulation.

“Towards the end of the game everybody is tired and I’ll give credit to my kids they came back with a little something extra,” Heaton said.

As time hit just around the halfway point of the first overtime the Cardinals got on a fast break. Quinn Middleton started the run — he looked to be trying to pass the ball to Huggins, however, a PW defender deflected the ball right to Wisdo, who ended the game with basically a slam dunk shot.

“Everybody out here wants to win but I think our team has something special,” Wisco said. “(Jake) Chinn won a ball out of the back, played it to me, I played it to Quinn. Quinn had a great ball to Ryan (Huggins), it was intercepted and it was basically a tap-in for me. I didn’t do much it was mostly my team.”