Carey Stadium was the setting as Germantown Academy hosted an Inter-Ac League opening day soccer game last Friday. An early goal by the visiting Churchmen of Episcopal Academy was answered by senior Jake Kafrissen of the Patriots, but another EA goal late in the second half allowed the Newtown Square squad to take home a 2-1 victory.

"We've been telling the boys for two weeks that the Inter-Ac is a step up," related Kurt Wetzel, who is in his fifth season as GA head coach. "It always is; it doesn't matter who you play."

Overall, GA emerged with a record of 5-2 (the other loss came against Westtown School) while Episcopal was 7-1-2, succumbing only to Shipley.

The Patriots are the defending champions in the Inter-Ac, and were the runner-up team in the 2021 Pa. Independent Schools tournament. They graduated seven players from last year's club, including forward Christian Combs (the league MVP) and goalie JoeJoe Cava.

Asked if the graduation losses had an effect on the nature of Germantown Academy soccer, Wetzel responded, "Not really. We're still playing two-touch, three-touch soccer, we move the ball. We still have the talent to be competitive in this league."

Stepping up on offense early this season, Kafrissen scored his eighth goal in the Episcopal game, while junior Josh Bouchard is now the Pats' starting goalie. The team captains for 2022 are senior midfielders Jack Strauss and Nick Veneziale.

In Friday's league opener GA made the initial attacks, then a little over three minutes in Episcopal's Dylan Vengoechea made a run from the left flank and sent a shot just wide to the right of the Patriots' cage. Vengoechea, a sophomore, found the back of the net not too long after that, getting Episcopal on the board just over 11 minutes into the match as he ran onto a loose ball inside the Germantown 18.

"There was some miscommunication on defense on the first goal," Coach Wetzel noted. "We let a head ball bounce in the box and that can't happen."

While Vengoechea gave EA a lot of speed up front, the Churchmen were missing another "Dylan" on defense; junior Dylan Unruh, a regular starter, was out with an injury.

Physically larger, the Churchmen were winning the majority of balls in the air, so the Patriots needed to move the ball quickly on the ground. Just past the midpoint of the first half, a GA transition sequence culminated in a pass from senior Eli Torrey to Kafrissen for Germantown's lone goal of the day. The match was tied at 1-1 with 17:04 remaining in the first half.

The clock was down near the 10-minute mark when Patriots junior Aidan Trabosh hit EA's right goalpost with a shot. A minute later, GA had to sub when one of its players was handed a yellow card.

"Play in the Inter-Ac is intense, and the teams that can avoid penalties are usually successful," Wetzel observed. "One yellow card comes as just part of a tough physical game, but we had three yellows, so we have to get smarter."

Offensive opportunities for both sides over the following minutes bore no fruit, and the half ended at 1-1.

As in the first half, GA attacked as the second half began, and this time the hosts controlled the play for some six minutes. On one potential scoring chance, a long free kick ended with the ball being grabbed out of the air by Episcopal keeper AK Heath.

An EA foray to the other end of the field had the ball rolling loose in the box at one point, but Bouchard went to ground to smother it. Nine minutes in, a hard shot from the middle of the 18 by GA's Torrey sent the ball pretty much directly to the gut of Heath for a standard save.

As the middle of the half approached, GA again earned a yellow card (Episcopal picked up several, as well, over the course of the match).

The Pats' Alex Farina had a hard shot deflect out off of Heath, and GA could not generate a clean shot off of the resulting corner kick. Heath ran out of the cage to bat away another GA ball with around 16 minutes left to play.

The game-winner for the Churchmen came with 14:48 on the clock. From out on the right wing, EA senior Eddie Jones sent a pass inside for the speedy Vengoechea. GA thought the Episcopal forward was offsides when the ball came to him, but there was no whistle, and he scored.

"It was close," Wetzel said of the possible offsides infraction, " but you can't rely on getting that call."

As the clock wound down, GA had a few chances to tie the game and the Churchmen had some opportunities to extend their lead. Neither side scored.

In the final minute, GA was awarded two free kicks from the middle of the field, but when each ball sailed into the box it was headed back out by an Episcopal player.

"We are extremely technical and we are not physically large, so a big, fast team is going to be a challenge for us," Wetzel noted. "They didn't outplay us with footwork today; they 'out-physicaled' us. Give credit to [EA coach David] Knox, he knows what he has and he knows how to use them."

Summing up, the Patriots' mentor said, "Hopefully, this is a wake-up call. Am I disappointed at the loss? Sure, but it's one loss and we've got nine more games."