Boyertown ends losing streak to Owen J. Roberts on Senior Night, 2-1 in OT

BOYERTOWN >> Most Senior Nights are reserved for occasions when the celebrating home team is a firm favorite to win.

The Boyertown boys soccer team’s schedule maker didn’t get that memo apparently.

The Bears celebrated Senior Night on Tuesday by facing an Owen J. Roberts program no Bear player had beaten in their high school careers, a streak dating back to Oct. 7, 2015.

Seeing their senior teammates desperate for a last chance to beat OJR must have ignited something in the Bear juniors. They weren’t interested in a world where they too were desperate for a shot at the Wildcats on their Senior Night.

Despite going down a goal by Ethan Gawlik in the first two minutes, junior Matt Kerr set up classmate Dimitrije Randjelovic’s second-half equalizer and Kerr got on the end of junior Nick Willson’s corner kick with 1:21 to play in the first overtime as Boyertown defeated Owen J. Roberts 2-1 in overtime Tuesday at Memorial Stadium.

“There’s no better way,” said senior defender Ryan Foskey. “Obviously you’d like to come out and kill a team on your Senior Night, but this is a lot better, coming out and winning like that.”

Ending an eight-game winless streak against OJR, including a 2-1 loss in their first meeting on Sept. 5, didn’t hurt either.

“It’s every year we lose to them. We lose to them in our stadium, we lose to them in their stadium,” Foskey said. “Now, we get them on our Senior Night for our last chance for the seniors. We said it before the game, ‘This is our last chance. We’ve gotta do it.’”

At 10-1-2 with wins over PAC co-favorite Spring-Ford, Abington and West Chester Henderson, Boyertown (5-1-1 PAC Liberty, 7-1-2 PAC) is ranked No. 3 in the District 1 Class 4A power rankings. That is even with a growing list of injuries that saw three of the team’s starting back four – aside from Foskey – miss Tuesday’s contest.

“The effort despite all the injuries (has led to the 10-1-2 record),” Kerr said. “We’re dropping like flies out there but people are stepping up. Next-man up.”

Despite the loss, Owen J. Roberts (4-3, 7-3, 9-4-1) is in position to qualify for the PAC and District 1 playoffs (ranked No. 17).

With its surprise start on a shot from distance by Gawlik, OJR spent the rest of the half and after the break trying to defend that lead. It worked in large part, outside of a big missed chance from Bears senior Landon Wenger after a diagonal through ball put him in on goal.

But trying to defend a one-goal advantage for 78 minutes if often a difficult proposition.

Boyertown got its breakthrough with 28:30 to play when Kerr initiated a counterattack down the right side. Instead of charging ahead, he checked while his defender kept running. It opened him up for a cross-field ball to an unmarked Randjelovic making a run from midfield down the left. Randjelovic struck it on the volley to make it 1-1.

“The kid laid off on me and I had plenty of time. I saw (Randjelovic) make that run and was screaming for it,” Kerr said. “It felt really good, but it was a great finish, one-touch finish. I give him all the credit.”

There wasn’t much in it heading toward the end of regulation, until Willson nearly won it with a strong strike on a bouncing ball that forced a big save from OJR’s Zeb Smith (5 saves) with 30 seconds to play.

In the leadup to the game-winner, Smith had the save of the night on a Landon Wenger shot from 25 yards, leaping to his left and knocking the ball out to keep OJR in it. It was short-lived though.

Willson’s left-footed in-swinging corner kick went to the back post – a point of emphasis after the Bears had missed a couple chances with not having anyone at the back post on set pieces earlier – and Kerr chested it in from close through traffic.

“We had so many chances before that, we knew it was going to come,” Kerr said.

“Every time we came off the field, it was about working on that last ball because it was getting through every time,” Foskey said. “That last one, we had everyone sitting back (post), we knew where it was going and knew someone was putting it in.”

Boyertown’s seniors include Foskey, goalkeeper Mason Kurtz, Jacob Groff, Noah Barnes, Dante Folk, Kolby Houck, Tyler Seidel, Wenger and Andrew Benning.