GFS junior Jacob Sternberg-Sher (left) and senior captain Isaac Myran battle against Moorestown Friends in a game that would end in a scoreless tie. (Photo by Alec Kostival)

by Alec Kostival

The Germantown Friends boys’ varsity soccer went to a 100-minute war Thursday against Friends School League rival Moorestown Friends.

GFS started with the ball in the first half. They were able to control the ball well, but found limited chances down the field. In the 13th minute, Junior Sam Weber had a shot go just off the outside post.

In the 23rd minute, sophomore James Hobbes-Pifer took a great shot, but just missed from breaking open the scoring. In the 36th minute, senior midfielder David Harvey had a quality scoring opportunity taken away by goalie Teddy Kinzler. While GFS kept the majority of the possession, they couldn’t find the back of Moorestown’s net in the first half.

Moorestown’s defense was able to keep GFS honest. Solid efforts from players like senior Larry Miles limited any potential momentum that GFS was able to create.

In the second half, it was more of the same from GFS. For about the first 20 minutes, possession was back and forth. Scoring opportunities were hard to come by for either team. In the 64th minute, a free kick by junior Gray Palmer set up another scoring opportunity for David Harvey, but, once again, he could not convert against the tough Moorestown defense.

Heading into stoppage time in the 80th minute, Moorestown found a scoring opportunity of their own. Senior goalie Pietro Berghella made the save to swiftly end their momentum. The whistle rang out soon after and propelled the game into overtime.

The first half of overtime brought new life to the GFS offense. Three minutes into OT David Harvey had his best scoring chance of the day. He had Kinzler beat and barely missed on an excellent shot.

“I thought he was our most dangerous player today and he gave them fits,” said head coach Sam McIlvain.

In the 88th minute, things look like they had ended in the favor of GFS. Senior Max Seldin was able to feed the ball to Sam Weber right in front of Moorestown’s goal. He had Kinzler beat, but a defender sprinted in to make the save.

GFS had several other opportunities, but just couldn’t finish. The second half of overtime started and things shifted in the other direction. GFS looked out of gas as Moorestown controlled the ball for the majority of the 10 minutes.

Throughout the last few minutes, Moorestown set up shop firmly in GFS’ zone. The defense was able to bunker down until the final whistle as the 0-0 draw became official.

The draw keeps GFS undefeated in Friends League play, moving their record to 3-0-1 and overall record to 3-4-1.

“I think we did just about everything right. The kids put in a lot of effort. We got a lot of help from a lot of players. Their goalie came up big once and one of their backs saved the day,” McIlvain said.