The Penn Charter boys’ soccer team maintained its first-place standing in the Inter-Ac League on Oct. 21, going on the road to record its second 3-0 victory of the season over Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. Through seven league games, the PC Quakers owned a record of 6-0-1 in the league (13-3-2 overall). The tie came against defending champion Haverford School, which slipped down into second place thanks to an 0-2 loss at Episcopal Academy on Oct. 14.

For Springside Chestnut Hill, the Oct. 21 loss had the team tied for fifth place with Malvern Prep, both at 1-6. The Blue Devils defeated the Malvern Friars in their one meeting so far, but Malvern picked up a win against fourth-place GA (2-4-1, 7-6-3). The Patriots forged a 3-3 tie with third-place Episcopal on Oct. 21.

At SCH, the visiting Quakers were on the attack much of the afternoon. About 10 minutes in, Charter sent in a dangerous crossing pass from out along the left endline, but the Blue Devils’ junior goalie, James Brenan-Rothschild, dove to stop the ball before it got to the near post.

A few minutes later, a shot by PC junior Shawn Marwaha was tipped over the goal, resulting in a corner from the left side. Senior Willem Van Beelen put the ball in play to the front of the cage, where his classmate Tiernan Perkins scored with 27 minutes left in the first half.

The visitors continued to attack, often looking for Van Beelen making runs up front. The senior sent one shot just over the crossbar, and had another deflected wide by SCH’s Brenan-Rothschild. Charter senior Jak Kraemer performed a half-somersault to hit a bicycle kick, but the shot was a little off the mark.

Despite continued pressure by PC, the score was still 1-0 at halftime.

During the second period, PC’s Kraemer fired a shot into the left post of the SCH cage. At the other end, one of the Blue Devils blooped a shot over several defenders in the middle of the box, but junior Miles Lynch, who played the whole game in goal for the Quakers, reached up with one hand to bat the ball away.

With about seven minutes elapsed, another attempt by PC’s Kraemer sailed high, but soon after that he finally found the net. Punching the ball home off of a centering pass by Van Beelen, Kraemer put the insurance goal on the board with 30:47 left in the contest.

On a Penn Charter corner kick with 17 minutes to go, the ball glanced off of several heads in front of the cage but then traveled out of the box. With the clock under 10 minutes, another Quakers corner kick led to a header by senior Will Adair that went over the bar.

Blue Devils sophomore Ryan Pearcy, who had replaced Brenan-Rothschild in goal, stopped a shot by Charter’s Van Beelen with under eight minutes left. The final score went up on the board with 2:02 remaining, as Kraemer notched his second goal of the day.

SCH senior Warren Miller got off the home team’s last shot, but his ball tracked a little wide and the Quakers’ Lynch stepped out to catch it.

League update

On Friday afternoon, Penn Charter clinched at least a tie for the 2025 Inter-Ac title with a 3-2 home field victory in its rematch with Haverford. In the league ranking system, three points are awarded for each win and one for each tie, and after Friday’s match the Quakers had 22 points with a 7-0-1 record. Haverford slipped into a tie for second with Episcopal, both with 5-2-1 records for 16 points. For either team to catch PC, they’d have to win their last two league games and Charter would have to lose its two final contests.

On a corner kick by the Quakers a little over five minutes into Friday’s game, the Haverford goalie accidentally deflected the ball into his own cage. At the start of the second half, Charter went up 2-0 when Van Beelem charged up the left wing and dished the ball inside to Kraemer for the score.

In the middle of the period, the situation changed dramatically when two goals were scored in less than two minutes by Haverford junior Finn French, who has made a verbal commitment to Duke for lacrosse.

PC regrouped and scored the game-winner with 5:55 remaining. On a corner kick from the right, the ball was booted in toward the front of the cage. It glanced off a Haverford defender and Perkins was there to stuff the ball into the goal. The resulting 3-2 tally held up to become the final score.

A few miles away at SCH, visiting GA notched a 5-2 victory.