Fast start sends Plymouth Whitemarsh past William Tennent

WHITEMARSH >> Plymouth Whitemarsh has struggled at the beginning of games so far this season, but that wasn’t the case Monday afternoon.

The Colonials scored three goals in the first 11:01 and cruised to a 5-1 win over William Tennent at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.

“It’s fantastic” PW coach Rich Kessler said. “It’s obviously what we look to do. We haven’t been so fortunate and we’ve had some big mental lapses early in games, so it’s really great to see us correcting those major faults that we have and I think it’s a good part in the season to be figuring that out.”

“This season we’ve had a lot of trouble starting off early in games,” PW captain Brendan Corpus said. “It was definitely good to get out to a quick start. I feel like that helped us throughout the whole game, too, because getting out to that quick start is really important.”

Corpus played a role in each of the first three goals.

“In my estimation,” Kessler said, “(Corpus) is the best player in this conference. I think he was as good as anybody last year, too. He’s a fantastic player. Total leader – he’s the total package in terms of a center midfielder. He does it all.”

Corpus fired a shot on goal when the game was scoreless, but William Tennent keeper Patrick Corley was there to make the stop. Joe Redmond followed the shot, grabbed the rebound and put it away for a 1-0 PW lead.

The next two goals were both headers off corner kicks. Corpus sent the corners into the box, where Henry Couchara and Luke Edwin used their heads to put them into the back of the net for a 3-0 lead.

“I’m always trying to find either Dean (Allen) or Henry Couchara,” Corpus said. “They’re our main ball-winners, our two center backs. They’re very dangerous in there. It’s always easy to find them.”

“Right off the tap they took it to us,” Tennent coach Nick D’Andrea said. “I think they were up 3-0 in the first 15 minutes, applied a lot of pressure. Give credit to (Corpus) and (Edwin), they were kind of all over us right at the beginning. That amount of pressure caused a lot of turnovers and to their credit they finished them. They were very aggressive in the box.” 

After Jimmy Manning scored to cut the Panthers (4-5-2) deficit to two, 3-1, The Colonials (6-4) received a red card and had to play the final 55:44 of the game with only 10 players.

“We sat in when we were down a man,” Corpus said. “We just stayed really compact and made it a lot easier to clear the ball out. Staying compact helped us limit their options up top.”

Despite being short-handed, PW didn’t allow another goal the rest of the way. They expanded their lead in the second half when Mason Clatterbuck and Corpus scored to make it 5-1.

“Those guys really did a fantastic job defending,” Kessler said, mentioning Couchara, Allen and Sam Cohen as defensive standouts. “We were still able to put high amounts of pressure on them and stretch the game and keep the ball. I’m happy with the group.”

Plymouth Whitemarsh entered Monday as the No. 32 team in District 1-4A, where the top 24 teams qualify for playoffs. They have eight games remaining to climb the standings.

“I think we’ll be there,” Kessler said. “I think we should be there. We have to earn it. Some results haven’t gone our way early on, so I think that we’re better than our overall record shows. We have this polarizing thing about us where we score a bunch and concede a bunch. We have these wild games. I think we are embodying that identity at the moment – chaos. I don’t think teams are going to want to play against us. We’ve got a bunch of tough games ahead of us, but we’re on a bit of a streak where we are figuring things out tactically and personnel wise.”

“We feel good,” Corpus said. “We’ve been in really good form the last few games.”

Tennent has a tough schedule the rest of this week with matchups against Abington and Hatboro-Horsham.

“You have to try to rebound and regroup,” D’Andrea said. “We’re an experienced group, so hopefully we can do that and have a short memory before we play Abington on Wednesday. We just have to focus on the next game and try to get prepared.”

Plymouth Whitemarsh 5, William Tennent 1
William Tennent 1 0 – 1
Plymouth Whitemarsh 3 2 – 5
Goals: WT: Jimmy Manning. PW: Joe Redmond, Henry Couchara, Luke Edwin, Mason Clatterbuck, Brendan Corpus.
Assists: WT: Griffin Newhouse. PW: Brendan Corpus 2, Adam Conti, Sam Cohen.
Saves: WT: Patrick Corley 4. PW: Owen Link 3.
Corners: WT: 4. PW: 8.