TOWAMENCIN  – A steady mist fell under the lights of the turf field Tuesday night as the North Penn Boys Soccer team celebrated their seniors in a pregame presentation at their annual “Senior Night”. Appropriately, it turned out to be the seniors who shined, playing red hot in chilly weather conditions routing the Quakertown Panthers 6-1.

As senior night tradition goes, only seniors were in the starting line up for North Penn.  Right from the first whistle, the Knights immediately took advantage of the Quakertown defense keeping the ball on their side of the field for most of the first half. Just five minutes into the game, Knights captain Alex Evans received the ball on a breakaway and shot just to the right of the net, missing a goal by inches. Evans took no time finding another opportunity however, scoring North Penn’s first goal of the night just five minutes later. 

As the first half went on the weather got worse, the mist turned to a steady rain and the temperature began to drop; but the play on the field only heightened for North Penn. Knights captain and senior Jamie Bonner made a great play on the ball, weaving in and out of Quakertown defenders to score just seven minutes after Evans had, giving the Knights a 2-0 lead.

As play resumed at midfield, North Penn immediately charged ahead taking the ball from Quakertown. Just over a minute after Bonners goal, Knight’s senior Matt McDonald scored off a corner kick to give North Penn a healthy lead 3-0 just mid way through the first half. Thanks to strong play by defensemen Zach Miller and Sean Gorman, the Panthers remained scoreless going into the second half.

During half time the rain subsided and the energy in the North Penn student section began to rise as the Knights took the field once more. Feeding off the electric atmosphere the Knights offense once again took control and captain Alex Evans scored his second goal of the night just four minutes into the second half giving North Penn a 4-0 lead. Quakertown then attempted an attack of their own; only to be shut down by the Knights goalkeeper David Selverian who kept a clean net all night.

Less than twelve minutes after Evans, North Penn Senior Nick Gambone scored increasing the Quakertown deficit to five. As the lead grew so did the cheers in the student section which clearly had an effect on the Quakertown team.

With a huge lead North Penn played their bench for the remainder of the game. Quakertown would not leave the turf scoreless though, taking advantage of a rare hole in the Knights defense and scoring on backup goalkeeper Chris Hanson bringing it to a 5-1 game. However North Penn would not allow that to effect their play, answering the Panthers goal with one of their own. Junior Abdul Mohammed scored for North Penn, the only underclassmen to score for the Knights all night. That would be the final goal of the match, giving North Penn a 6-1 win over the Quakertown Panthers.

“Losing to Quakertown 4-1 in our game earlier this season felt awful.” Said North Penn defensemen Zach Miller after the game. “But a 6-1 win tonight felt awesome. People came in and started who don’t normally do, and everyone stepped up tonight and played their best.”

North Penn senior goalkeeper David Selverian was proud of his teams win on a very special night for the seniors saying “It’s a really special moment for all of us and it’s been a great experience playing here while we could and it’s very exciting to get the result that we did tonight.”

North Penn coach Paul Duddy was very happy for the play of his seniors “A lot of them started tonight and played very well for us, it was a good thing for them.”

Duddy also pointed out the difference in play his team showed compared to the last time they played Quakertown “We have a couple players hurt and so do they. A combination of the result last time and this being our senior night, and still being in the thick of things in the league really gave us motivation.”

North Penn finds themselves just six points behind the conference leader Central Bucks South going into final stretch of the season. They have high hopes for playoffs, especially with being so successful as of late. Duddy looks forward to what’s in store further along in the season saying, “I’m not going to predict a winner or anything, but I think we will do alright. We will be fine.”