Jones, North Penn too much for Wilson in PIAA-4A first round

PENNSBURG >> At 6-foot-4, North Penn’s Josh Jones has spent the entire 2019 season winning 50-50 balls in the air and scoring with his head.

On Tuesday, as the Knights took on District 3’s Wilson in the opening round of the PIAA Class 4A playoffs at Upper Perkiomen High School, Jones did both of those things with great frequency.

Jones, a junior, scored twice on headers and won countless balls in the midfield to lead the Knights to a 5-3 win over the Bulldogs and into Saturday’s state quarterfinals.

“He has a full game, not just the ability to win the ball in the air, but it’s so great to have that ability to win the ball with his head,” North Penn head coach Paul Duddy said. “He wins basically every ball that he can get to. He’s great, he’s one of our leaders and he’s been outstanding all season long doing exactly what he did today.”

It didn’t take much time for the Knights to get going Tuesday. Less than four minutes into the game, a bouncing corner sent in by Carter Houlihan was headed into the back of the net by Roman Ilovsky to make it 1-0.

Then, four minutes later, Mike Chaffee beat Wilson keeper Nathan Holler as North Penn jumped out to a 2-0 lead. It was Chaffee’s first game back after missing extended time due to an injury.

“That fast start set a tone,” Duddy said. “We had beaten them earlier in the season and my fear was that we’d take them lightly, and I’m glad we didn’t. Those two goals, getting them that quickly was really important.”

Wilson, which came into Tuesday’s game as the No. 3 seed from District 3, responded with a goal of its own from Ethan Stitzel halfway through the first.

The score stayed 2-1 until North Penn was awarded a free kick from about 35 yards out with 10 seconds left in the half.

James Stewart took the kick for the Knights, sending a high, bending shot on net that Jones got his head on for his first goal of the night as North Penn took a 3-1 lead into the break.

“We run that play all the time to try and confuse the goalkeeper,” Jones said. “I’m usually just a screen but I was able to get a little flick on it to get it by the keeper.”

Jones’ second of the night came with 30 minutes left in the game and gave his team a commanding 4-1 lead, as a Ryan Stewart cross hit Jones in front of the net and he sent a headed ball into the upper corner past Holler.

“I actually called my teammate (Hunter Stites) off on the second one,” Jones said. “Good thing he listened because I think we would have collided if not.”

Wilson began to press up in the second and did a better job controlling the pace, testing North Penn goalie Sawyer Meade on multiple occasions, but the Bulldogs couldn’t find the back of the net until the game was too far out of reach.

North Penn’s final tally of the night came courtesy of Houlihan on a beautiful touch-and-go effort between he and Chaffee.

“We had a great defensive corner, I think Josh cleared it, and it fell right to me,” Houlihan said. “I knew I could beat the first guy so I took it buy him. I saw Chaffee flying down the wing and got it to him, he was a little unselfish and played it right back to me on a great ball and I slotted it home.”

Houlihan spent most of the night being man marked by Wilson. Because of the extra defensive attention, his touches were sparse. But the North Penn captain and Lafayette commit said teams that use a defender to mark him are only opening up the field for the rest of his teammates.

“It’s tough sometimes when teams are doubling me or man marking me, but it’s kind of crazy to me that people haven’t figured out that anyone on the team can score,” Houlihan said. “I think we had four different goal scorers tonight, we just got Chaffee back from injury which is huge, so if teams want to man mark me we have so many other players that can score on the field so it doesn’t frustrate me at all.”

North Penn faces the No. 4 seed out of District 1, Conestoga, in the quarterfinals. The Knights beat Conestoga, 3-2, in the semifinals of the District 1-4A playoffs.

NORTH PENN 5, WILSON 3
North Penn 3 2 – 5
Wilson 1 2 – 3
North Penn: Josh Jones (2); Carter Houlihan; Roman Ilovsky; Mike Chaffee
Wilson: Ethan Stitzel; Lucas Sarge