DISTRICT 1-4A BOYS’ SOCCER: Abington blanks Rustin to reach title game
By Christiaan DeFranco
ABINGTON — On Halloween night in front of a partially costumed crowd, a swarm of Abington Ghosts galloped through the chopped-up dirt and grass of Schwarzman Stadium, moving here and there as if disappearing through walls and closed doors, surprising the guests on either side.
Sixth-seeded Abington, employing its own sort of haunted house in a nearly flawless performance, shut out No. 7 Bayard Rustin 2-0 in the District 1-4A semifinals Tuesday to reach the district championship game for the first time since 2012.
“This is a very tight-knit group,” Abington coach Randy Garber said. “They like each other, and they play like they like each other. The training that the young coaches are giving them, day in and day out, the same message, is so positive, and they’ve just bought into it.”
The Ghosts, who received first-half goals from Braeden Brownholtz and Peter Cleary, will face No. 1 Conestoga (19-0-1) in Saturday’s district final at Spring-Ford High School at 3 p.m.
Both Abington (20-2) and Rustin (17-4-1) have already qualified for states, which takes the top six teams from this district.
The Golden Knights, accustomed to playing on an artificial surface, weren’t pleased with the condition of Abington’s field prior to Tuesday’s game. The ground was beat up, half-moist and half-frozen, and full of holes from football cleats.
The Ghosts haven’t lost on their home turf all year.
“The pitch is what it is, it took us 40 minutes to get used to it,” Rustin coach Ryan Castle said. “We concede a good solo effort with the first goal, and then give up a restart goal, and we’re down 2-0. You could fold, and the second half could be ugly, but I thought our boys came back and battled.”
Barely 10 minutes into the contest, Abington’s Braeden Brownholtz received the ball from Brandon Escobar and broke free for the first goal of the game.
“I checked to the ball, turned, took a bad touch and just went with it,” Brownholtz said. “I was on the right-hand flank, beat the one guy, cut in, and the center back committed, so I took another touch into the middle. And I just dragged the goalie near-post and then just slotted it back-post.
“Honestly, I feel like we were going into the game a little scared of them, but right when that goal happened, we were like, ‘We’re fine, we can play our game, and no one can mess with us on our field,’” Brownholtz said.
The Ghosts added their second goal with 14:34 left in the half, when Cleary found the net off a tight, bar-high corner kick from Brian O’Neill.
Abington unleashed 14 shots and had four corners in the game, while Rustin generated 11 and three.
The Ghosts pushed the ball upfield much of the first half and again late in the game, but in between, the Golden Knights applied plenty of pressure of their own.
“I’m lost for words right now,” said Abington goalie Justin Waterfall, who thwarted all 11 attempts sent his way. “The people I can thank are our defenders as well as our offense for scoring. When we score early like that, it’s huge. It’s a huge motivation and it kills the other team.”
After both goals, the Abington sideline erupted and all the Ghosts on the field rallied together in ecstasy, like a party just broke out.
“When we score, we celebrate like nobody else,” Waterfall said. “We celebrate like everybody is watching, because everybody should be.”
Junior Evan Chappell had 12 stops for Rustin. Both keepers were spectacular, making multiple acrobatic saves.
The balanced Ghosts used their speed and height on defense to win several 50/50 balls, and their potent attackers often were effective in working the ball up the field.
The pressure was on Abington’s D after the intermission.
“Most of the game was in their end of the field in the second half,” Castle said. “It was a great effort by our boys. Abington’s a good, big, physical team. They know how to play on this field, and it showed.
“It’s unfortunate that a district semifinal has to be played on something like this, but at the end of the day, they were a higher rank, so they earned it,” Castle said. “I’d love to see us on a neutral field. That’s a team I’d love to see on another day, and we just might. I think we’ll look forward to that, if that’s a possibility.”
District 1 has had trouble finding schools that will agree to host neutral-site games in the playoffs. If Abington wins the district crown, it could host a state game here.
“We had some breaks in that we had home games throughout districts, which is huge, because this is not an easy place to come in and play,” Garber said. “We’re probably the only one left that has natural grass. It’s old-school. It’s a football field. It’s a little bit narrow. But, you know, you play all season to get home field advantage.
“When you play at home, you have an advantage, no matter what the surface is,” he said. “Especially in our case, it’s huge. Teams come in and say, ‘Wow, we’re playing on grass?’ Kids are so used to turf, they play on grass and say, ‘What’s this?’ It’s a little bit more difficult.
“Our grounds crew wants to aerate and seed this,” Garber said. “They’ve been waiting for a week. Now, they’ve got to wait another week, because we won’t know until Saturday if we would have another home game.”
The Golden Knights brought a sizeable crowd on the road with them. The fanbases of both clubs went back and forth at each other throughout the night.
“Our fans were great,” Brownholtz said. “All year, we’ve been getting more and more fans, and we knew tonight was going to be the most fans we’ve had yet. Rustin didn’t want to play on this field. Already, coming into the game, they were pissed, and we just beat them 2-0 to make them more pissed.”
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Email Christiaan DeFranco at cdefranco@thereporteronline.com. Follow him on X at @the_defranc, or visit ChrisDeFranco.com.
