Soccer
Favorite athlete: Carli Lloyd
Favorite team:: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the state final my senior year
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports- Forgetting my cleats and having to stop at the nearest Dicks Sporting Goods for a random pair before one of my club games.
Music on playlist: The Weeknd
Future plans: Play soccer while studying International Studies at Dickinson College
Words to live by: “It won’t always be easy, but it will always be worth it”
One goal before turning 30: I want to travel to Santorini, Greece
One thing people don’t know about me: I have two different colored eyes.
By Andrew Robinson
The moment had been four years in the making.
A few minutes after the crowning achievement of her high school soccer career, Central Bucks East senior Aralynn Patterson awaited the state championship medal that Patriots coach Jake Nesteruk would be putting around her neck. From her first day as a quiet freshman unafraid to get peppered in goal to her finish as a team captain and the master and commander of a fortress-like defense, Patterson had always had Nesteruk in her corner.
So, as soon as the medal was secured, the senior goalkeeper and sixth-year coach shared an emotional embrace. The meaning behind it was significant.
“It was an extremely special moment considering that I’ve been on the varsity team for four years and he’s always believed in me,” Patterson said. “He writes notes to all the players and in my freshman year, he said in his note that I would lead this team to a state final. Being able to do that in my senior year, we were both super emotional.”
Patterson held onto that note and it’s become a treasured memento.
“It’s on my wall where I can always see it,” Patterson said.
In his previous life as a player, Nesteruk was himself a goalkeeper. He knows the challenges and intricacies of the position and just how valuable a good keeper can be at the high school level.
So, there was an equal amount of emotion on both sides of that embrace in the medal line.
“It was a parallel path, I grew so much as a coach with her,” Nesteruk said. “That moment at the state final, we had been through so many seasons of being really, really close, and that’s rewarding as hell but to finally break through for our first championship and do it against our rival in a game like that. And to have such a near-perfect performance, it was a quick celebration and reminder of how far we’d come together.”
*****
Nesteruk didn’t know what he was getting when Patterson arrived for her first practice four years ago. A few players on the team had said good things about this incoming freshman, and knowing it’s not always easy to get quality goalkeepers and keep them in a high school program, he wanted to see what she had.
Within just a few days, Nesteruk knew they had a player who would be an integral part of the program for the next four seasons.
“She’s always had the toolkit to be a really, really good goalkeeper, and she’s always been a gamer,” Nesteruk said. “She’s one of those kids where the bigger the stage, the more she’s able to show up, deliver and make some critical saves. She’s always had the technical component, she’s always understood what we want to do as a team and what she needed to do and why she needed to do it, but she’s grown so much as our coach on the field.”
It’s a unique position.
Those who play it wear a different uniform than the 10 other players they share a pitch with, and they’re the only ones who can use their hands. It probably requires the most connectivity with every teammate but also the loneliest at times especially when things go wrong.
There’s a solidarity among keepers. Only they can understand another’s struggles or triumphs, and that was the genesis of Nesteruk and Patterson’s bond. It was one that grew immensely over four years.
A lot of keepers share a similar origin story: they were little, their team’s goalkeeper was out or they just didn’t have one, and because they were tall or athletic or something like that, they got thrown in. Patterson can’t quite remember exactly what put her between the posts in the first place when she was about eight years old, but she did take to it right away.
By the time she was 10, Patterson was a full-time keeper and within a few years was thinking about playing at the next level.
“She knows so much about our opposition, their tendencies and what they like to do, she knows so much about how we should manage games and she’s willing to communicate it on the field,” Nesteruk said. “She’s a problem-solver, she’s found her voice and she’s an organizer. She does it in training too, she’s the first one to speak up in our hard moments about what we need to do as a group, she’s the first one to take responsibility for our mistakes. Ultimately, we can help build better soccer players and better soccer teams, but to see her grow and become the person she is and leader she is, that has been so incredibly rewarding.”
******
While Nesteruk didn’t know much about his incoming goalkeeper, before she’d ever shown up at a CB East training session, Patterson knew what she was in for. In middle school, Patterson had trained a few times with Elliot Forney - a surefire future Division I recruit and one of the top players on East’s roster - so she’d had a true hands-on look at the standard of the program she’d be joining.
That willingness to step in between the posts just to get shelled, get up and do it again over and over until everyone had their share was an endearing quality. Among the lasting memories he has of Patterson, Nesteruk can think back to some of those blazing hot August preseason sessions as the keeper was getting shots blasted at her by the likes of Elliot Forney, Sofia Mignon and Camryn Williams in the early days to Jessie Bernabe, Mia Forney, Kiera Sleicher, Ava Mignon and Taylor and Ella Roumy more recently and just rolling with it.
“We do so much shooting at training and so much small-sided finishing and she’s just getting peppered,” Nesteruk said. “I think of those summer games where it’s so hot and she’s just like ‘bring it on.’ She’s embracing the job and working at training to the point of exhaustion when all these great midfielders and forwards dribble through a cone and have a free shot on goal that she has to deal with it time and again. I just love the standard she brought in what she did.”
For Patterson, it was about the best on-the-job training she could ask for. Here was a steady supply of Division I caliber players at her disposal to hone her craft against, so she knew it would be silly to do anything but give her all and take every rep she could get against them.
“It improved my game tremendously,” Patterson said. “Elliot Forney and Sofia Mignon - their shots are rockets. I think getting that my freshman year was really helpful and going into the program, I’ve always been this kind of player, but I always want to be shot on by the hardest shooters and always want to test myself so I always put myself against Elliot or against Cam or against Sof and that made me a stronger player.”
******
With four years of experience, Patterson saw plenty of growth in her abilities and also developed some areas of real strength in goal. She had a knack for making saves on breakaways, usually a situation that does anything but favor a keeper, and she proved that early on when she made a huge denial in an upset win against Avon Grove on the road in a district playoff game as a freshman.
As for the areas the senior feels she’s grown the most, she listed her technique, her explosiveness making diving saves and of course her vocal presence. She could make highlight reel saves as much as she wanted, but if her defenders were being stretched out or picked on because she wasn’t talking to them, opponents were going to score.
“I feel like I come up in moments where I’m needed,” Patterson said. “I think the support from Jake the past four years, him supporting me and telling me I need to be the loudest voice on the field - he used to say, ‘Never shut up’ - so that helped with my confidence as well.”
As a senior, Patterson owned the goal. Her first three years in the program however, she was only a part-time player, splitting time between the posts with Mae Leedy with each keeper getting to play a full half in every game.
Patterson said there was a benefit to sharing time, especially her first season, because she was able to see how quickly things moved in the high school game, but it also fueled her competitive side to become a better player.
Leedy is a very talented goalkeeper in her own right, she was part of 18 shutouts as a senior last year, a team captain and recently finished her freshman season as part of Shippensburg’s women’s soccer program. Both keepers would have had a strong case to play all 80 minutes instead of just half a game on any other team, but they made things work, something that was not lost on their coaches at East.
“If it were me and I were in goal and someone asked me to split time, I couldn’t imagine being that good of a teammate because I wasn’t that good of a teammate,” Nesteruk said. “To see Aralynn and Mae, I am sure it was a challenge for both of them, but to see them push one another to make one another better and to celebrate one another’s success and be each other’s biggest fans and still be competitive about it, it’s incredible what those two accomplished.”
Like a lot of freshmen, Patterson was a little timid and quiet when she first came into the program. That’s not something a goalkeeper can get away wit,h and by the time this season rolled around, Patterson’s voice was one of the team’s biggest weapons.
This fall also tested the senior in ways she hadn’t quite faced in previous years with a brand-new back line and a play style that put a lot of extra responsibility at her feet.
Along with Leedy, both of last year’s starting center backs in Sydney Ralph and Savannah Hayes graduated while the Patriots opted to move last season’s fullbacks Taylor and Ella Roumy into more forward roles where the twins’ attacking prowess could be utilized. The Patriots’ new-look defense was understandably a work in progress early and leaked a few more goals than anyone hoped or certainly wanted to be giving up.
“The circumstances we were in, with a whole new back line and having a little bit of adversity early in the season with - not in how the back line performed but that we didn’t seem like we were together - we didn’t seem like we were a unit at the beginning of the year,” Patterson said. “How we grew together and how I was able to command them and help them be the best they could be is extremely rewarding.
“I remembered back to my freshman year and how I was thrown into some challenging games, so I knew what it feels like to be brand new and I wanted to help them as much as I could. I put it on myself that if something happened or the defenders got split, it wasn’t their fault and I needed to communicate to them, so I took on the role of commanding but supporting them.”
After a couple tweaks, East settled on a back four of senior Paige Dougherty and junior Cece Hayes in the middle with junior Addie Langolis and senior Skylar Lipp on the outside. With that quartet’s strengths lying in some different areas than previous defenders, the coaches asked Patterson to be a fulcrum at the back and someone who would be receiving more passes back to her than she had previously.
“I think that’s why we didn’t have as many shots against us as you would think we did,” Patterson said. “The way the defense and I worked together, I was always there to support them and when they needed help, I was always there for them to play out of the back.
“I think I’ve always done it. I’ve always tried to be the support back there. It wasn’t an integral part of last year, but I think this year it was just to take some of that pressure off.”
Nesteruk marveled at the way Patterson was able to adapt her play to meet the demands of the team’s new style, and with time, the defensive unit grew in confidence and performance. It all culminated in the postseason where the Patriots gave up just three goals in eight matches between the district and state brackets.
After giving up a goal to CB South in the district quarterfinals in a 1-0 loss that sent the Patriots to playbacks, Patterson and her defense hit an even higher level and shut out five of their final six opponents. That included two shutouts in playbacks to reach states and three in the PIAA bracket with the lone goal coming on a fluky deflection off the crossbar in the state quarterfinals.
Putting up three zeroes in four state games was a terrific accomplishment for the defensive group and solidified Patterson’s mark on the program’s first-ever state title.
“It’s such a sweet and rewarding ending for Aralynn to win that state championship and for our identity to kind of shift into this unexpected defensive force that we became,” Nesteruk said. “What she does as a goalkeeper is super understated, so much attention goes to what we do going forward so to see that kid lead a backline and earn three shutouts in four games against regionally-ranked teams and come up with two incredibly massive saves in a state final, it’s a culmination of years of hard work and growing into a leader.”
*******
While Patterson’s time at CB East had a perfect ending, the journey to it was anything but smooth. She was a hero of this year’s state playoff run, but the keeper didn’t play a single second in last year’s District 1 championship game or the team’s run to the PIAA semifinals while sidelined with a concussion.
“It was really difficult for me, especially with it being such a monumental run for us,” Patterson said. “It was a lot for me to cope with, but this year, I overcame a huge mental barrier. Coming back from that, it’s something really difficult, especially as a goalkeeper.”
Her playing style is predicated on being aggressive and fearless, which is a huge help to her teammates because she eliminates threats they’d otherwise have to deal with, but it also sometimes puts her in tough positions. Patterson has dealt with several concussions in her, career but the one she suffered late last fall was certainly the worst, and her initial comeback was thwarted when she incurred another one last spring during the club season.
Concussions are a challenging injury. There’s no concrete timeline for an athlete’s recovery from one and sometimes the aftereffects can be worse than the original occurrence. Given the nature of her position and the fact she’d had a few of them, Patterson and her family did need to discuss her future playing in goal.
“It’s something that, myself, I would never think of stopping or moving to a different position, but it was a legitimate conversation me and my parents had to have,” Patterson said. “I had one in club season in the spring so coming out of that, I was a little nervous about what the doctors would say, but I went to CHOP and all of them said I’m not overly susceptible to having them and they were really supportive of the process of getting back into it.”
That was one hurdle cleared, but she still had to convince herself on the field that she’d be okay. When a player returns from an injury with a brace or wrap, it’s easier to see why they might be a little hesitant to do something they’d done without second thought before the setback. For Patterson, everything that was restricting her was mental.
She called it a big concern before the season because she’s at her best going up and challenging for corner kicks and crosses or coming out to challenge oncoming forwards, so she didn’t want to lose that. Mostly, it was a lot of self-reassurance that she was good at it and not every hit she took would lead to an injury, so the more she forgot about it, the more her aggressive and confident play returned.
“I joke, but Aralynn and I are like total opposites as goalkeepers,” Nesteruk said. “She’s the most brave, decisive and confident kid in goal you can ask for and every injury was a setback, and it did take her some time to build up her confidence and flex her muscle as a goalkeeper and get those reactions back.
“That wasn’t easy and she’ll be the first one to tell you there were times it weighed on her. How she’s grown is that she’s learned to manage her emotions and be that stable force, she’s the constant, stoic presence that we needed in the biggest moments.”
The team’s performance in the PIAA Class 4A title match, a 7-0 win over CB South, exceeded anyone’s expectations. From the moment they’d found out it was going to be a fourth meeting with the rival Titans, a team that had beaten them twice on their home field, the Patriots players felt an extra bit of motivation to not lose for a third time.
It was also a deceiving scoreline from the fact that as a casual glance, it probably looked like Patterson didn’t have much to do that afternoon. Anyone who was there can attest that was the furthest thing from the truth.
“There are two massive, massive saves in the first half that if Aralynn doesn’t make those, it changes the script,” Nesteruk said.
If not for a pinpoint reactionary save by Patterson on what looked like an open net just moments after Sleicher had scored the opening goal, it would have been 1-1 early and a vastly different game from that point on. Even later, Patterson made a diving save on a blast by South’s Riley Karpinski - a Virginia Tech commit with the kind of rocket shot she’d spent four years training against regularly - that kept it 3-0 and allowed East to tack on another goal before halftime.
Even after halftime, Patterson’s involvement wasn’t done. CB South had a couple of corner kicks in the opening minutes of the half, so the senior did what she does and went up to challenge them so her team could keep momentum on its side.
It was, for anyone looking past the score, a pretty fitting performance where Patterson showed every bit of where she’s grown and developed over the last four years in her final 80 minutes.
“That was so amazing and after losing to them twice, we were so hungry to beat them,” Patterson said. “It was a perfect way to end. I’d told my parents at the beginning of the season, ‘I think this is the year,’ and the fact that we did it, it was just amazing.
“I really prided myself on those plays, especially the one from Riley Karpinski and I watched the game the other night because it’s just such a fun thing to watch, the two free kicks I came out in the second half, I loved watching those again.”
*******
Aside from soccer, Patterson is involved within the school. She’s in the National Honor Society and Spanish National Honor Society and is a member of the Next Play Sports Club, Operation Eternal Gratitude and CBE Bounceback.
Outside of school, she volunteers with the Miracle League of Northampton Township for its soccer and basketball seasons as a buddy for athletes with disabilities.
“It’s an amazing feeling being able to share my love for the sport with them,” Patterson said.
Next year, Patterson will be continuing her career at Dickinson, a Division III program in the Centennial Conference that felt like a perfect fit from every aspect. She knew pretty early on that playing in college was her ultimate goal and even started her recruitment in eighth grade by reaching out to coaches, going to ID clinics and breaking out of her shell a little bit so it would come easier when teams really started to look at her.
She got really serious in her sophomore year, but it was at the end of her freshman year where she’d actually gone to an ID clinic at Dickinson and the program quickly earned a top spot on her list.
“I looked at other places, I looked at other divisions because at the beginning, I didn’t really know what I wanted,” Patterson said. “Last year, a turning point for me was that I wanted a high academic school with a good program at the same time and Dickinson offers both of them.”
It’s a strong academic conference with competitive athletics, and Dickinson offered a major that Patterson has always seen herself pursuing. Her father served in the United States Army, so Patterson has always had an interest in the world scene and history and she’s turning that into an International Studies major
“Growing up around that scene, it made me more interested in it,” Patterson said. “History has always been my favorite subject ever since I was little, I just love it.”
In terms of on-field fit, Nesteruk couldn’t think of a better choice. He won’t be surprised if Patterson shows up for her first day of training at Dickinson and makes the same impression she did four summers ago at East or if she’s competing for minutes as a freshman.
If not, he knows the Red Devils are getting a fantastic program player who will work hard every day and be ready when her number is called.
“When you talk about the next level, coaches have a standard that goalkeepers need to be organizers and not only great shot-stoppers who deal with crosses and play at their feet but they need to be smart enough to recognize where problems might come from and sort them out ahead of time,” Nesteruk said. “It’s been consistent across the years but that vocal leadership from her was really present this year.”
For soccer players aiming to go to the next level, club soccer has become an absolutely vital piece of the recruitment process. Some players may eschew high school all together and just focus on their club team, and it often feels just as a team’s fall season ends, players are already posting their schedules for an upcoming club showcase.
Patterson’s club career took her to a few stops. She played for the Ukrainian Nationals in middle school, switched to FC Bucks early in high school, then on to PDA South and finally back to FC Bucks which had re-branded to its current Hex FC moniker.
That also meant the coach she’d had the longest tenure with was the one she played for every August through November at CB East.
“Early on in my career, he gave me a lot of pointers and his perspective,” Patterson said. “He’s got such a great soccer IQ as a coach and his tactics, I’ve learned a lot from. I generally think he’s one of the most influential coaches I’ve had, if not the most.
“It’s special for me because I helped shape the standard for the program and being a part of that and sharing it with Jake is an extremely rewarding feeling.”
There are a lot of moments Nesteruk can think back on from Patterson’s four years at East. That Avon Grove game resonates loudly, but so do things like the way she kept things level this fall after the rugged start defensively.
She was a captain and the leader at the back, so if she was acting rashly or asking for dramatic changes with a new group in front of her, she knew it wouldn’t benefit the team. They could figure it out together, she’d take responsibility and the blame if needed and everything fell into place.
“Anytime you’ve got a kid that’s been in the program for four years and playing for four years, it feels like they’ve been there forever and they’re going to be there forever,” Nesteruk said. “It is hard to think about how Aralynn is moving on because when you’ve been there for so long, it creates this natural trust at all levels and she approaches this program, her job as a goalkeeper and as a captain with such little ego. She is so interested and invested in everyone else and their experience in the program that they immediately take to her.”
Four years ago, Nesteruk handed Patterson a note saying she’d lead them to a state final.
After the final game she’d play in a CB East uniform, he was able to hand her a medal as a champion.
“I’ve rewatched the video of me and Jake embracing after the game and getting my medal a lot,” Patterson said. “A lot of people have also pointed out at the end of the game where I was kind of falling over and being so emotional, that’s definitely something I will always think of.
“This program has been such a big part of my life the past four years, it was such a special thing to end on that note.”
