PERKASIE- The underdog North Penn Knights knew their night would be a long one against the top seeded Pennridge Rams. The Knights traveled to the Helman Center to play their third matchup against Pennridge of the year.  Both teams played tough but it came down to the last minute heroics to decide it. 

The Pennridge Rams (20-1-1) edged the North Penn Knights (13-8-2) 2-1 in the District 1 AAAA Semifinals Match.

The first half was back and forth with both teams putting shots either wide or hitting the crossbar as they struggled to find the net. The Knights had a tough time offensively with their attacker Emily Varilla unable to get through the Pennridge’s defensive backs; Madison Angelo, Lauren Mcintyre and Ashley Gordon. The game was scoreless at halftime with both teams looking to make adjustments. 

With 16 minutes left in the second half, Varilla hit a left footed shot from outside the box into the corner to put the knights in the lead 1-0.

The resilience of the Rams showed with under ten minutes to play Emily Kriney took a shot off of a corner kick and scored to tie the game up heading into the home stretch from a deep curving shot outside the box. Kriney found the net once again with a deep curving shot outside the box just two minutes after her first goal to give the Rams the lead.

“That’s where I scored on them the first game, so that was a good spot for me,” Kriney said.

The Rams held the Knights out of the net for the remainder of the half and moved onto the District Final game. The Rams will face Boyertown on Saturday at Spring-Ford High School. 

“We’re a resilient group and capable of more than people think. We will prepare for Boyertown like any other game. Our goal was states and we got there. We will go at them like every other team,” Pennridge’s Head Coach Audrey Anderson stated postgame.

The Knights will play in the third place game to help with seeding for states on Friday versus Conestoga at Spring-Ford.

“Incredibly proud of how the girls have battled all year to get to this point, feel like we just hung there with one of the best teams in the state and we feel we have a lot of soccer to play,”  North Penn’s Head Coach Mike Rio stated.