Broskey, CB West defense wall up to advance past Pennridge in District 1-4A quarterfinals

EAST ROCKHILL >> Teammates call her “Brick Wall Broskey” with deep reverence and adulation.

Central Bucks West senior Jules Broskey has been gutting it out all season, playing through an injury that would have sidelined most and making bail-out saves with her shoulder heavily wrapped. She knows she’ll probably need surgery at some point after the season, but even when things looked bleak for the Bucks making the postseason, Broskey kept strapping up and taking the punishment a goalkeeper subjects themselves too because her team needed her to.

Saturday afternoon, Broskey authored a brilliant performance in goal as she and the No. 26 Bucks did it again, advance 4-3 in a shootout after playing No. 2 Pennridge to a 0-0 draw in the District 1 4A girls soccer quarterfinals.

“I said early in the season it would take us a while to click and for a second there, I didn’t it was going to click but something happened this week and we all clicked,” Broskey said. “We’re a whole new team.”

Playing tough as a senior is a bit of a Broskey family tradition at West. Jules’ older sister Jess gutted out her senior year on a hurt knee and helped West win a District 1 6A girls’ basketball title. Now, Jules has the Bucks two wins from an improbable title thanks to the 15 saves she recorded in regulation and overtime and a save during the shootout.

In front of her goal, the teammates that call her “Brick Wall Broskey” formed a pretty formidable wall of their own against a speedy and potent Pennridge attack. While West was looking for an opportunity to grab a goal off a counter or set piece, the Bucks knew they couldn’t afford to gamble in the back.

To that end, they put junior Kate Weyer back at home in the back. Weyer, a co-captain, has spent most of the season as a midfielder but once the Rams started peppering the goal, she dropped in the middle of the backline along with fellow co-captains Ava Longo and Courtney Moylan in the middle plus Taylor Madden, Ava Brunner and Janelle Blokker rotating at fullback for the back five.

“Our hard work has carried us really far,” Weyer said. “Playing for each other was something we really hadn’t done this season and I think we started doing that this week and that’s why it’s all been clicking.”

Part of  not getting beat was accepting they were going to get beat at times. Pennridge’s Casey Malone and Lindsey Balmer were constant threats off the left flank, Liv Grenda probed and prodded trying to find that sliver of room and Tori Angelo prompted at least four do-or-die saves out of Broskey.

It was a masterful defensive performance that wouldn’t be a curator’s first choice for an art museum, but it did the job plenty well enough.

“We never start in…a 5-4-1, a 5-3-2, I’m not really sure what we were…but we knew we had to park the bus from the start and not let them score,” Moylan said. “Knowing if the ball went past Ava, I was going to be there and I have Jules behind me, she’s amazing and she would save my back. Everyone had each other’s backs and even though most of the game it felt like we were getting killed because we had five in the back, we stayed compact and composed.”

Broskey echoed that sentiment, she didn’t need to make a clean save or end with the ball in her gloves after every shot so long as she kept it out of her goal. To that end, the senior had a palm save on a laser by Angelo, she got just enough of a Balmer curler to push it over the crossbar and went full extension on a leap to grab a hit by Casey Malone that looked due for the upper 90.

“I know how good this team is and it means so much to play against them,” Broskey said. “They are so good, it makes all of us a better player from playing against them all the time, so I know every time I come up here I have to bring it.”

Broskey also brought it at the end of overtime before the shootout began. Facing penalty kicks is extremely challenging from a keeper’s perspective, but Broskey didn’t want her teammates to feel pressured to be perfect from the start.

“My coach actually wanted us to shoot second but I went up to him and said ‘No, I have this team’s back, I’m going in second,'” Broskey said. “I wanted to take all the pressure off them and put it on me. I don’t want the pressure on my teammates.”

West and Pennridge traded makes for two rounds before Broskey denied Pennridge’s third opportunity. However, Seretha DeMoss came back with a big-time save of her own on West’s fourth attempt, making the fifth round of kicks potentially decisive.

Mackenzie Gausch converted hers to put the Bucks in front and when Pennridge’s final shot carried and hit off the bar, it was West flooding the field to celebrate moving on again in an improbable postseason.

West’s fantasy run through playoffs now faces another dragon in No. 14 CB East in Tuesday’s semifinals. The Patriots, 5-2 winners over No. 6 Abington earlier in the day, are on a special run of their own and it almost seems fitting the archrivals will meet again for a chance to play in the District 1 title game.

During the regular season, the teams split with each winning on each other’s home field including West winning the first-ever game played under East’s stadium lights. Then there’s the matter of last season, where East outlasted West in a second round shootout that ended the Bucks’ season on the Patriots’ way to states.

“We’re not the most talented team in this district but we come with hard work every single game,” Longo said. “Hard work can beat talent.”

“It’s been eight years since we last made it past the second round,” Broskey said. “We’re doing it for the program and each step we take, we don’t feel any pressure because no team has made it this far in eight years.”

Pennridge hosts Abington on Tuesday in a playback game, with only the winner granted a state playoff bid and the chance to play on this season.

CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 0 0 0 0 – 0 (4)
PENNRIDGE 0 0 0 0 – 0 (3)