Late leveler gives Perkiomen Valley draw with Spring-Ford in heated PAC showdown

Royersford >> Spring-Ford and Perkiomen Valley played 100 minutes of soccer Monday night at Coach McNelly Stadium, but it wasn’t enough to determine a victor as the two rivals battled to a 1-1 draw in a matchup of the Pioneer Athletic Conference Liberty Division unbeaten teams.

“I’m a little bitter,” Spring-Ford defender Aiden Hudon admitted. “We really wanted to get a win tonight since we were playing at home.”

Colin Trainor finished a Hudon free kick early in the contest for Spring-Ford but PV’s Max Chamorro broke through with a late equalizer in regulation to force overtime in the heated affair that resulted in three red cards and a 16-man shoving match.

After Monday night’s draw, both teams remain undefeated in the PAC, with the 4-0-1 Rams holding a slight edge over the 2-0-2 Vikings, but each coach knows they still have a long way to go, with their next meeting scheduled to close out their conference schedule.

“We haven’t beaten Spring-Ford in three years,” McCabe said. “Obviously I wanted to win, but to come out of this with a tie is a step in the right direction for our kids. I’m excited to be able to play them at our place to end the season.”

The Rams jumped out to a quick lead as Hudon found Trainor on a free kick and the junior redirected the ball into the back of the net.

“Before the game, Trainor was our biggest priority on defense,” Perk Valley head coach Bob McCabe said after the game. “We knew he was their biggest offensive weapon, but sure enough, he was able to get free and put us in a hole.”

Spring-Ford had a chance to extend their lead just a few minutes later, but Brandon Duke missed a shot wide after beating the Perkiomen Valley goalkeeper.

Perkiomen Valley continued to chase the elusive equalizer into the second half when a throw-in gave them a quality scoring opportunity, but a bicycle kick was headed out of danger by a Spring-Ford defender.

The Rams’ one-goal lead continued to hold as the clock ticked into the 78th minute, but with under two minutes remaining, Vikings forward Chamorro gathered in a deep pass and sprinted around the Rams defense before he deposited the ball in the back of the net.

“Even as we fell a man down, we didn’t want to surrender another goal,” McCabe explained. “We were finally able to get a decent clear up to Max, who did the rest of the work.”

Neither team could muster any decent scoring chances during the two overtime periods and the game finished as a draw.

“I definitely thought we should’ve won,” Spring-Ford coach Brent Kissel said. “If we didn’t lose our heads and our focus, we could’ve built on our lead and gotten the victory.”

A large shoving match highlighted the physical contest that saw 5 yellow cards along with the three reds be dealt to various players on both teams.

“I always tell our kids this is a rivalry game and they got a taste of that tonight,” Kissel added. “They saw how physical these games can be and we now know what we have to do in order to remain focused and win.”

The next meeting for these two rivals is slated to be on October 11.