Stewart’s goal in OT lifts North Penn over Council Rock North
TOWAMENCIN >> North Penn wasn’t going to be satisfied with a tie.
After 80 minutes of soccer with rival Council Rock North, the Knights headed into overtime with an even greater resolve.
“I could tell by the way Alex (Stewart) was playing that he wanted to keep pushing for it,” Knights coach Chris DePeppe said of his senior midfielder. “Sure enough, he got it done.”
Stewart’s goal — coming two minutes and 58 seconds into the first overtime — lifted the Knights to a 1-0 win over Rock North in a Suburban One League crossover game.
“That’s a huge three points,” DePeppe said of the victory, which raised NP’s overall record to 8-3-0 and 7-2-0 in the Colonial Division.
“We’ve done really well against this division,” DePeppe said of the Patriot. “We really wanted to get max points because we gave up two early losses in our division. So that was a huge win.”
North Penn put a lot of pressure on late in the second half but it was in overtime when something finally clicked.
“Jovani (Gonzalez) made a great run. He’s been solid for us all season,” Stewart said. “We knew once he got it in the corner, he was gonna get it in the box somehow. And then he played Kyle McKeever, who laid off the perfect ball for me. It was kind of perfect for me so all I had to do was get a good shot off.”
Said Stewart: “Everybody in our division is getting points so we knew that every single game counts.”
The Knights also overcame some adversity when senior defender and co-captain Ryan Mindick was lost for the game with his second yellow card.
“We never stopped. Even once he was out, we never gave up,” Stewart said. “And it feels good to pull out the win. Ryan brings a lot to our team so we were going to miss him, but we knew we could still do it without him, with 10 guys.”
North Penn came through in its first overtime game of the season.
“We don’t get many opportunities like that,” Stewart said.
The Knights took control right away in OT.
“(Stewart) is a great energy player, and he would have gone for 150 minutes today if he had to,” DePeppe said.
Short-handed but still determined, North Penn generated pressure when it had to.
“We played better with 10 than 11,” DePeppe kidded afterwards. “We had to make adjustments after losing Ryan. Hunter Stites stepped in and played center back for us and was fantastic so it’s great to have the versatility in a senior captain like that. Everybody stepped up and did what they had to do.”
Keeper Gabe Kemp made a pair of tremendous saves for the Knights, keeping CR North (4-6-1, 4-5-1 SOL Patriot) off the board.
