TOWAMENCIN- Echoes of cheers and claps of celebration rang out under the lights of the Knight’s turf field Wednesday night as the North Penn Boys Varsity Soccer team beat the Hatboro Horsham Hatters 3-0. Motivated by chants of support from a strong North Penn Student section, North Penn received great performances on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball to keep the Hatters winless this season.
Following a tough loss last week against Quakertown, the Knights came into Wednesday’s game 2-2 on the season, looking to move over the .500 with a win. North Penn thrived off of strong defensive performances in the first half to keep the Hatters offense at bay. Knights goalkeeper David Selverian made a key diving stop in the opening minutes off the match to keep the game scoreless. Two minutes later, North Penn senior Jamie Bonner took advantage of a frazzled Hatters offense and scored, giving North Penn a 1-0 lead. North Penn defensive players Zach Miller and Sean Gorman kept a clean backfield to keep the ball up front allowing North Penn to keep lead going into the break.
The Knights offense came into the second half on fire. Six minutes in, North Penn captain Alex Evans made an impressive shot that landed the ball in the back of the Hatters net, giving North Penn a 2-0 advantage. As play resumed and time continued to dwindle, play between the two teams grew heated. North Penn sophomore Nick Miller put an end to any hope the Hatters had of making a come back with a fantastic header into the net off of a headed assist with twenty minutes left in regulation. The Knights pulled their starting goal keeper in the winding minutes of the game and put in their back up, senior Chris Hanson, who held off the Hatters for the North Penn win.
“We were definitely coming off a huge loss last week against Quakertown, and we had the momentum. We wanted to win this game big and we did.” Said North Penn senior player Zach Miller after his teams redeeming win. “Jamie’s goal coming so early was the motivation. We needed to have success in this game.”
North Penn head coach Paul Duddy was very proud of his teams performance at the end of the game, “I thought we played a very strong second half. The first half we were a little tentative, but Jamie Bonner had a great shot to keep us up on them.”
In response to his teams loss last week, Duddy thought this win was a great motivator for the boys to have success in the future-“We needed to get back on the winning track, our league is very tough conference wise. We play to win, I’m not in the predictions game but we will be right in the mix.”