Archbishop Wood wins District 12-3A title over Franklin Towne

PHILADELPHIA >> Archbishop Wood won the District 12-3A championship game, 5-1 over Franklin Towne, Thursday evening at Ramp Playground.

“After the PCL letdown,” Wood sophomore Enzo Petruzelli said, referring to a 3-2 loss against Lansdale Catholic in the Philadelphia Catholic League quarterfinals, “we were down. This definitely brought it up a little bit. We’re looking forward to states, hoping to make a run.

“(This game) gets our confidence back up to where it was during the season.”

The Vikings dominated the first half. They put five shots on goal, earned six corner kicks and led 1-0 as the final seconds of the half ticked away. But in those final seconds, a Wood miscue led to a Franklin Towne goal with 0.8 seconds remaining and the teams went to the break tied.

After intermission, Wood went straight down the field and scored just 27 seconds into the second half. Logan Pietrzak carried straight to goal and ripped a shot. His strike was stopped, but the rebound rolled sideways, parallel to the goal line. Petruzelli was there at the far post to bury it and put the Vikings ahead, 2-1.

“All it takes is one mistake and you can let a team back in the game,” Petruzelli said. “First 30 seconds we came back in and scored right away. We brought (our energy) back up and finished the game strong.”

Nineteen minutes later, Petruzelli gave his side some breathing room. He received a long, cross-field pass from Giuseppe Propato, worked around his defender and scored short-side to make it 3-1 in the 60th minute.

“(Propato) played a great through-ball,” Petruzelli said. “I tried my best to get a touch on it, get around (the defender). I turned, hit it as hard as I can and it went in.”

Jackson Kiss added a goal in the 68th minute and Pat McHenry scored in the 70th to put Wood ahead, 5-1.

In the first half, Lou Daniele got the scoring started when he put away a Propato corner kick to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute. 

“Our intensity throughout practice this week,” Petruzelli pointed to for the dominant performance. “We really needed to get back into the mindset of winning after that tough loss (Lansdale Catholic). This is definitely something we needed to do and heading into states I think we’re looking really good.”

Wood opens the state playoffs Tuesday against the District 3 third-place finisher.