North Penn outlasts Abington in District 1-4A quarterfinal classic

SPRINGFIELD >> Carter Houlihan was adamant, it was his free kick to take and he was going to make it count.

North Penn’s leading scorer stood over the ball late in the first half of Saturday’s District 1-4A quarterfinal against Abington and lined up his attempt. Houlihan couldn’t have hit it any better, cracking the ball into the upper corner of the net to open the scoring.

The senior added a second goal and the top-seeded Knights, thanks to some timely saves by Sawyer Meade, outlasted the No. 9 Ghosts 2-1 in a superb game contested at La Salle College High School.

“We knew it was going to be a physical game and their previous scorelines didn’t indicate how good of a team they are,” Houlihan said. “We had a good practice (Friday) and were mentally prepared.”

Abington, the district runner-up last year, now falls into the playback bracket as it tries to win the district’s fifth state bid. On paper, the matchup between the Ghosts and Knights had classic written all over it, but Abington was torpedoed even before the first whistle.

Ghosts defender Kyle Phillips, a keystone center back and excellent aerial player, fell ill during warm-ups and couldn’t play, forcing Abington to scramble its starting group. Midfield technician Nevin Baer started at center back and played most of the match there, robbing Abington of its offensive fulcrum going forward.

“That hurt us because Nevin couldn’t go forward and Kyle has played every game for us this year as a center back,” Abington coach Randy Garber said. “We didn’t find out until gametime. We wanted to make sure we didn’t give anything away and it worked up until the restart.”

North Penn (19-1-0), which was again without ill striker Mike Chaffee, came out buzzing from Thursday’s win over No. 16 Pennridge but also had a healthy respect for Abington. Baer and Houlihan are former club teammates and a number of other players from both teams have shared club rosters in the past so the match was competitive, but respectful.

Even with Baer on the defensive end, the Ghosts (16-4-1) went right at North Penn, winning a pair of corners and getting a good chance on net when Bryce Lexow got up to head a cross on frame. Meade made his first stop of the day to deny the chance.

“The defense played well getting the ball out wide and keeping it out of the corner,” Meade said as Knights coach Paul Duddy gave him a big hug. “They played amazing back there, locked down their best players. It’s just the coaching, I’ve been getting confident back there and it’s really helping me.”

Abington’s Alex Woll did an admirable job shading Houlihan, making the Knights forward work hard to get by and turn with the ball. North Penn on the other hand, applied one of its top weapons to try and lock down Abington’s long ball game.

Junior Josh Jones, who drew a foul in the second half leading to a Houlihan penalty kick that won the match, was an absolute force in the air. The 6-foot-4 midfielder just won ball after ball and was a key piece of North Penn’s defending in front of goal.

“It was important to get positioning from the start and know we had to win the second balls,” Jones said. “Most of the time I think we all know I can win the first one but winning that second one is the key and keeps us in good areas.”

With about 7:30 left in the half, Houlihan was fouled about 30 yards out from goal and as Abington formed a wall, he, Ryan Stewart and Jamie Stewart had a conference about the set piece.

After taking ownership of the hit, Houlihan took a run-up and drilled it into the top corner, sending every player in North Penn colors down to the corner to celebrate.

“Ryan Stewart wanted to take it and I said, ‘Ryan, I’m feeling good about this one,’” Houlihan said. “He said ‘you got it,’ so I stepped up and put it home.”

For Abington, which had defended extremely well to that point and gotten a couple massive saves from Sam Dumas, it was a bit of a crusher.

“They know each other and respect each other and I thought it was a good, clean game,” Garber said. “I don’t know if I rate them that much better than we are, I thought we hung with them and played them pretty fair. We have to go into the playbacks but we think we can do it.”

Houlihan made it 2-0 with 28 minutes left in the second half but the Ghosts only saw it as familiar territory. Garber sent in senior TC Cheng and the forward made a quick impact with his hustle and heart.

Cheng kept after the ball, pressuring North Penn at the back and eventually getting a run into the box before he was knocked down, earning the Ghosts a penalty kick. Senior Reese Gibbs converted it to cut the lead in half with 21 minutes to play.

“We knew from their last game, they were down 2-0 and came back and scored three so we had to keep our foot on the gas,” Jones said. “We could have probably scored a couple more to put the game away, but we’ll take it.”

North Penn didn’t need to score again because of Meade. The keeper made three saves to preserve the win following Gibbs’ penalty kick, the best unquestionably coming with 8:45 left in the game.

Abington had earned a free kick from the same area Houlihan had scored from and after a short pass, Baer ripped an attempt on target. Meade was able to get to the far post, diving at the woodwork to push away the Abington senior’s crack.

“I can tell the way he’s kicking his foot where he’s going,” Meade said. “I just jumped up and made the save, I felt great after it.”

Meade had one more stop to make, covering up a shot by Baer in the final five seconds before the clock ran out and the Knights could celebrate.

“I knew I had to smother it, get down and get it out and I could end the game with that save,” Meade said.

Abington will be at No. 4 Unionville to begin its playback quest. North Penn, which qualified for states with the win, will host No. 5 Conestoga in Tuesday’s semifinal round.

After getting knocked out in the district quarterfinals last year and losing their playback opener, the Knights were motivated to make the state tournament this year. While they did it, they’re far from done.

“We’re all ecstatic,” Houlihan said. “We knew coming into today, we’d be in states or be in playbacks but we came out with the mentality we didn’t want the same thing to happen and I think it showed today. I give a ton of credit to Abington, that’s a great team with great players and they gave us a run for our money.”

NORTH PENN 2, ABINGTON 1
ABINGTON 0 1 – 1
NORTH PENN 1 1 – 2
Goals: NP – Carter Houlihan, Houlihan (PK); A – Reese Gibbs (PK).