Hosts nipped in OT at CHA soccer tourney
CHA sophomore Mike Marino (right) wins the ball from Phil Craig of Archbishop Curley. (Photo by Lene White).
by TOM UTESCHER
There was little drama in the first three games at the Chestnut Hill Academy/Reebok Invitational Soccer Tournament last weekend, but the fourth contest helped make up for that.
In those earlier bouts, Maryland’s West Nottingham Academy lost a pair of 7-0 games to CHA and Penn Charter, and Archbishop Curley High School knocked off Charter, 4-0. During the last minutes of regulation play in Saturday’s finale, however, Chestnut Hill’s Blue Devils were clinging to a 2-1 lead over the Archbishop Curley Friars, a team which is always a force to be reckoned with in the Baltimore area.
Curley tied it up with five minutes to go, then went on to win 3-2 in overtime, scoring the “golden goal” in the 14th minute of OT. The Friars’ Sean Rothe, a junior defender, was named the tournament MVP.
The outcome was not in doubt for very long in either of Friday’s games. In Chestnut Hill’s meeting with West Nottingham, the Blue Devils outshot their guests 15-1 in the first half, accumulating a 5-0 lead.
CHA, whose astoundingly wrinkled uniforms seemed never to have made the acquaintance of an iron, got on the board two minutes into the action, when Brent Campman scored from near the left post off of a cross from the right. A header by Mike Griffin followed 90 seconds later, and after several near misses by other Blue Devils Joe Breen drove a shot through the goalkeeper’s hands with 15 minutes left in the first half.
Number four went on the board when the rebound of an outside shot by Penn Steel was tucked into the net by Taylor Ferry, and near the end of the period a shot off the crossbar left the ball loose in the box once more, setting up a strike by Chelsey Roebuck to make it 5-0.
The Devils contented themselves with playing keep-away for much of the second half, and during one stretch the Rams did not touch the soccer ball for more than six minutes. Markers by Nick Veneziale and Ian Holton rounded out the final score.
Next, Archbishop Curley also took control of its game in the early stages, scoring twice in the first ten minutes. Brent Hooper’s long, high volley from far out on the left wing dipped down right under the crossbar for the icebreaker, and in front of the cage Matt Liska sent the ball across to the left side to set up a goal by Phil Craig.
PC goalie Steve Baron made impressive stops on two other attempts by Hooper and dove to punch away a hard outside shot by the Friars, but Curley netted a third point before halftime, as Brody Ponder launched a bullet from almost 30 yards out.
The Baltimore franchise bagged its final goal three-and-a-half minutes into the trailing half. B.J. Quigley carried the ball into the left side of the box and drew out Baron, and when the Quakers keeper slipped down Quigley literally dribbled the ball right over the goal line. Charter’s own best chance to score came with a little over six minutes to play, when a shot from the left side of the penalty area by Connor Gorman rose about a foot over the crossbar. The outcome would’ve been more lopsided if not for Baron, whose gutsy performance earned him ten saves.
The Quakers (3-5-1) rebounded on Saturday morning with a romp over West Nottingham (1-4-1). Unfortunately the Rams, a late addition to the line-up after another school pulled out, just don’t have a strong enough program at this point to compete in this tournament field.
Junior Tim Drabyak and freshman Jeff Calhoun each scored twice for Penn Charter, which also received goals from Gorman, junior Ricky Lynn, and sophomore Patrick Hitschler.
At high noon, CHA (2-2) squared off against Archbishop Curley (6-2-1), which had already lost to another Inter-Ac League team, Germantown Academy. Frank Spada’s unassisted strike gave the Blue Devils an early advantage, then the Friars tied the match midway through the first half, with Quigley assisting on a goal by Chris Wright.
Chestnut Hill retook the lead when Campman set up scorer John Mitchell with 16:59 remaining in the period. Blue Devils goalie Taylor Rooke preserved the lead until halftime, spoiling Curley’s best chance when he stopped a shot pounded at him by Liska on a ball crossed from the right flank.
The Blue Devils had scoring opportunities in the second half, but the Friars had more, and home fans had the feeling that their team’s lead wouldn’t really be secure until the final whistle. On two occasions the Friars’ Wright came close to scoring a second goal, but one shot carried just over the cage and another attempt was foiled by an offsides flag. An offsides call also negated an apparent goal for CHA, as Steel tapped in a ball centered by Mike Marino. On another Chestnut Hill charge, Breen drew AC keeper John Connolly out of the cage, then tried to go around him but fell after he was brushed by the Friars’ goalie. The Devils wanted a whistle on the play but didn’t get one.
At the far end, CHA’s Rooke was taking a self-inflicted battering as he leapt and dove in every direction to knock down well-struck shots by the Friars. Curley finally got one by him with 5:11 left in regulation time. On a restart from just beyond the 18, Craig flicked the ball into the box to Ponder, who took a few dribbles and fired the ball into the left side of the cage. In the waning moments the Blue Devils’ Marino almost scored off of a cross by Roebuck, and Craig had a near miss for the Friars, but the count was still 2-2 when the horn went off.
Many schools would’ve been happy to settle for a tie against the well-regarded Archbishop Curley team, but to his credit, CHA coach Bob DiBenedetto has never been one to shy away from overtime. A pair of ten- minute, sudden-death OT periods would settle the matter.
The Friars outshot the Devils 3-1 during the first session, but the deadlock endured. The Curley coup-de-grace came on a restart three minutes and seven seconds into the second extra period. A near-perfect pass by Anthony Longo arrived right at the feet of Quigley as he was making a run through the middle of the box, and he punched in the gamewinner.
Rooke came away with 12 saves for CHA, while the Friars got seven stops from Connolly.
