Abington fell to Haverford in Saturday’s District 1 4A title game. The Ghosts’ season will continue Tuesday as the second seed from District 1 in the PIAA 4A State Tournament. Photos provided courtesy of Greg Powell. Check back for a gallery of photos. CLICK HERE to go directly to Suburban One Sports' BOYS' SOCCER GALLERIES.
District 1 4A championship game
No. 4 Haverford 3, No. 7 Abington 1
The players and coaches of Abington formed a large circle, their arms overlapped on each other’s shoulders, a group staying together.
It had been a disappointing afternoon at Haverford’s A.G. Cornog Stadium, the Ghosts’ attack largely stymied in the District 1 4A title game while the Fords - enjoying a unique opportunity to play for a district title on their home field - made the most of their second half looks. Abington had fought to the last whistle, but the ball doesn’t always go in the net enough to reflect the effort a team puts into getting it there and that’s where the Ghosts found themselves as assistant coach Isaac Pitkow rallied his guys for their next step.
Haverford won the day and the district title 3-1, but the Ghosts left knowing they still had an opportunity in front of them.
“This is a special group of guys,” Abington coach Randy Garber said. “They like each other, they’ve bonded together, obviously they’re very disappointed they didn’t get the result today because they were prepared to win a district championship.
“This is what the beauty of the game is, any given day, anyone can win the game. Tonight Haverford scored the goals they needed to score to win the game.”
Sean Westmoreland turned to look at the players and coaches of Haverford celebrating with the District 1 Class 4A trophy in front of their bench and proverbially tipped his cap.
The Abington senior co-captain, a hard-working and industrious center midfielder, had plenty of avenues to take his thoughts on a disappointing loss to the Fords in Saturday’s final and chose to credit his opponents. Abington has played 23 matches this season, 18 in the regular season and five more in districts, losing just two times with both of those setbacks coming to the Fords.
“They’re a great team, I give them a lot of credit for playing us well twice now,” Westmoreland said. “We couldn’t convert our chances, and at the end of the day, if you don’t convert your chances, you’re not going to win.”
The Ghosts certainly had chances, but Fords keeper Sean Grein was up for them. Grein, a senior, had a heroic performance in goal magnified by the fact he’s usually Haverford’s backup. An arm injury to starter Liam Greenly earlier in the playoffs shifted his role to playing the field as a defender, but Grein stepped up in a major way with a couple pure robberies of Abington shots on Saturday.
Grein made a reaction save on Cooper Blynt in the first half, and he came up with an unreal save at the upper 90 to push away a sharply-hit header by Kyle Kretchsman that seemed all but destined to go in with 12 minutes left. On top of those, there were the usual handful of good looks that drifted just wide or a little high as Abington kept looking to push the ball and even generated five corner kicks.
“We had our chances,” Garber said. “We missed one very early in the game that was on the doorstep, Coop hit it, and the goalkeeper made a very nice save. Coming out of the half, the back took one off the line on the first corner kick we had, so there’s two good chances before they finished the opportunities they had and that’s the difference.”
Haverford scored twice in a minute early in the second half and added a third goal with 12:50 to play in regulation. Abington refused to fold, Westmoreland putting a shot on goal in the scuffle after a free kick that was saved, but Blynt was in the right spot to blast home the rebound with 9:46 to go and give his team a lifeline.
“That’s the fight we have and the fight that we show. I love this group, I think something we didn’t have last year when we went out in the second round was the togetherness and the connection we have. Everybody is super bought-in, and I think that’s why we’ve had that magic.”
Abington’s season will continue in the opening round of the state tournament on Tuesday. The Ghosts will host Chambersburg, the District 3 runner-up, in the first round. Chambersburg had a magic run this postseason, the No. 10 seed knocking off the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds on its way to the final before falling 1-0 to No. 1 Warwick.
“I’m really proud of the group,” Westmoreland said. “It’s really unfortunate we didn’t get the result, but the fight we showed all 80 minutes shows we’re not going to give up no matter what, no matter what position they put us in and I’m looking forward to states for that reason.”
Scoring Summary
1st half
No Scoring
2nd Half
H - Seamus Landon
H - John Snopkowski
H - Nate Spangenberg
A - Cooper Blynt (Sean Westmoreland)
Abington coach Randy Garber on the matchup: “We have two losses and they’re both from them. They’re a good team, we’re a good team, but today they were better than us.”
Prepping for states: “You gotta win four games. We won four games to get here, so states is four games and you could be state champions. They’ll have off (Sunday) and get back at it Monday. We’ll see what happens, but I think they’re up for the challenge.”
HAVERFORD 0 3 - 3
ABINGTON 0 1 - 1
SOL in stripes
One of the three referees who worked Saturday’s final has ties to the SOL.
Erin Stevenson, a 2017 graduate of Pennridge and an outstanding player in her time with the Rams who went on to a college career at UMBC, has joined the high school officiating ranks. Stevenson, who followed her parents Scott and Christina into refereeing, first started officiating club games as a teenager and became a PIAA official this year, earning a spot in the crew for the boys’ championship match.
With PIAA officials rotating during the match, Stevenson worked the second shift as the center official on Saturday.
- Log in to post comments
