Pennridge, Souderton battle to 0-0 draw

EAST ROCKHILL >> Postseason soccer arrived a bit early for Souderton and Pennridge on Tuesday.

“The one thing that we always say is come playoff time, anybody in our league is gonna be more than prepared for success, because of how hard our league is from top to bottom, the type of results that we have to grind out against each other,” Big Red coach Matt Benner said. “So when we go and play teams from other leagues, we’re not intimidated. The moment’s not too big for us. Because we go through 10 playoff games every year.”

Souderton and Pennridge played back-and-forth soccer for 100 minutes at Helman Field, exchanging possession, momentum, and a few very near misses along the way to a tightly-contested 0-0 draw.

“That’s pretty much your typical Colonial Division game,” said Rams coach Pete Valimont. “They had a handful of chances at the end of the first half, but we had a handful of chances too. We just couldn’t find it. Their defense did a great job. And at the end of the day, those kids battled and played a hundred minutes in the last regular-season week.”

First-place Pennridge is now 10-2-3 in the SOL Colonial, with the regular-season finale slated for Thursday at 7 p.m., at home against Central Bucks South. The Rams are currently ranked seventh in District 1-4A. Souderton, fourth in the Colonial at 7-4-3, has its Senior Night Thursday at 6:30 against Central Bucks West before closing out the regular season Saturday at 2 p.m. at North Penn. Big Red is currently 17th in District 1-4A.

“Our division is just ridiculous,” Valimont said of the strength of the Colonial. “We have CB South for Senior Night, which is not gonna be easy, and then we just sit back and rest, and hopefully the chips will fall in our favor and we can get a bye or a home game or two and go from there and see what happens.”

Senior midfielders Jake Saville and Aiden Castle were key for the Rams while senior forwards Dillon Barbieri and Brandon Fornwall countered for Souderton.

“Everyone in there today worked their butts off,” Valimont said. “We can watch film, fix things here and there – better through balls, better finishes, play a little bit better defensively against how they were attacking us in the beginning. But at the end of the day, hats off to my guys for working their butts off and doing a great job.”

Souderton turned up the pressure in the final moments of the first half but both teams went to the half still tied.

“In the first half, when we had the wind at our back, the boys did a good job of picking out some good passes, getting some dangerous balls in the box,” Benner said. “We thought we were gonna tap one of them home but we hit a post, hit one over the net, hit it to the keeper. We tell the boys all the time the hardest thing to do is score goals, certainly in our division. There’s a reason there’s so many one-goal results in our division. And Pennridge is no exception.

“Pete and his staff have them playing really well this time of year and they’re a hard team to break down. On the flip side, we’re really happy that we kept them off the board. They’ve got a lot of firepower and some really good players, so for us to come out of here with a point – we wanted three, but we’ll take a point against a really good team.”

Pennridge hit the post in the second half, as both teams battled on. Rams keeper C.J. Dimmick got the shutout for his squad while Aidan McClure did the honors for Big Red.

“It’s a great environment,” Benner said of the Colonial Division contests, including the overtime one on Tuesday. “The boys get amped up to play games and they get real excited for the competition. They know a lot of the kids from playing against each other in club so it’s a lot of fun.”