Morgan’s pass, Collier’s finish send Archbishop Wood past Lansdale Catholic in PCL quarters

LANSDALE >> Ryan Morgan knew he had to give up the ball.

Earlier in Friday’s PCL quarterfinal match against Lansdale Catholic, the Archbishop Wood midfielder had tried to go it alone and ended up losing the ball and wasting a scoring chance. So, in the second overtime faced with a similar scenario, Morgan took the ball off his foot and gave to Shane Collier.

The pass was good, the finish by Collier was better and the No. 5 Vikings topped the No. 4 Crusaders 1-0 in a tremendous boys’ soccer playoff game.

“We were beating their outside backs to the line and I had one run where I should have played it across so the next one, I saw (Collier) coming behind me and I played him through,” Morgan said. “He finished it and it felt great to get a win today.”

During the regular season, Wood and LC had played to a 0-0 tie so there was little reason to expect anything less than another tense, determined and hard but fair match in the playoff rematch. Wood was slightly more dangerous in terms of attacking, but it truly was an even contest as both teams traded runs.

Lansdale Catholic was again stellar defensively, with goalkeeper Kellen Ward making eight stops and the backs in front of him blocking shots and winning tackles. The difference, as coach Casey Farrell saw it, was Wood found a way to create in the offensive third while the Crusaders weren’t able to do the same.

“There’s a reason every time we’ve lost, it’s been a 1-0 heartbreaker,” Farrell said. “We went 100 minutes with these guys the first time, almost 120 minutes this time. It’s never been the defense, we need somebody to step up and put the ball in the back of the net and be the hero that day. Sometimes we get it but when we don’t we end up with a 1-0 loss.”

LC certainly had good moments of attack. Forward Jimmy Alff worked exceptionally hard and played one of the best passes of the day, a swerving hit right into the path of Brendan McKay that came back his way before Wood broke it up.

Owen Webster hit a couple terrific long balls, Matt McDougal ran hard and Mike Niemann brought some spark off the bench, but there wasn’t that last connection in front of goal. LC also had plenty of chances on set pieces with eight corner kicks and at least that many free kicks but didn’t cause enough havoc to put one away.

“We can be creative getting the ball to a certain point,” Farrell said. “When we know something’s working, we do it but as soon as it stops working, we just beat it to the ground. Sometimes, we have to be a little extra creative and step up. Our defense is outstanding, you just have to be able to put one behind their defense and catch them off guard.”

As one of the few carryover starters from last year’s PCL champion side, Morgan has shouldered a lot of responsibility in leading the Vikings and trying to help his younger teammates understand what it takes to win in the league. He stressed that the rest of the team needed to approach Friday like any other game and didn’t think the moment engulfed them.

Collier wasn’t expecting many goals either but he looked at Friday’s match as a chance for Wood to get a refresh on its season.

“We had a couple losses late in the season but we told ourselves once we get into the playoffs, it only takes one game,” Collier said. “That’s the mindset we came in with.”

Morgan and Collier both fessed up to over-doing things offensively in regulation and the first overtime, which is just part of their competitive drive. They’re at their best when they work together and they started to mesh much better in the second 15-minute overtime and got the ball wide, which paid dividends later.

After Morgan slithered his way into the 18 and fired off a shot that Ward turned away, the senior knew it couldn’t be a one-man effort to beat the standout LC keeper and he started to look pass after he got into the box.

The golden opportunity developed along the side and came back to the front of goal. Lou Daniele started the sequence with a win before Collier helped it along to winger Braedon Kehan up the left flank.

Kehan then hit a perfectly weighted ball toward Morgan, who cut inside a defender to reach the pass and take it back toward goal.

“I knew I could beat him with my speed, so I took advantage of that,” Morgan said. “Their inside guys (on the back line) are really good, so I wanted to try and get to it on the outside.”

Once Morgan worked into the box again, he made the smart play and passed off to Collier, who still had a little work to do.

“I was thinking I had to get the shot off but I knew if I took it with my right, the guy in front of me was blocking it,” Collier said. “I took the chance, made an extra touch and prayed.

“A lot of them were grouped up near post so I figured if I hit it far post, I had a pretty good chance of it going in.”

Collier placed his shot perfectly and Ward wasn’t able to make a play on it as it tucked in the far post with about six minutes left in the second overtime.

“I scored and didn’t know what to do, so I started running around,” Collier said.

“We absolutely have the worst celebrations on the team,” Morgan added.

“Yeah, we really do,” Collier concluded, laughing.

Wood is off to the semifinals on Wednesday while LC will get a chance to rest, regroup and train before its District 12 2A game and following District 1/12 subregional. The result hit the players hard, with a few Crusaders sitting on the bench in silence after the match ended.

Farrell knew what the game meant to his guys but also stressed they have the chance to play a lot more soccer in the coming weeks.

“None of our losses had this kind of gravitas, this is the thing they most wanted to do,” Farrell said. “We haven’t been to a PCL final four in a number of years, they had a chance to do it and they knew it so that’s what we’re seeing right now. Hopefully they take it, stick in their brains and their stomachs and let it fuel us to a better performance next time out.”

ARCHBISHOP WOOD 1, LANSDALE CATHOLIC 0
ARCHBISHOP WOOD 0 0 0  1 – 1
LANSDALE CATHOLIC 0 0 0 0- 0
Goals: AW – Shane Collier (Ryan Morgan)