TOWAMENCIN – There may have been no fans in attendance for the Knights’ Tuesday afternoon matchup with the Bucks– however the defending PIAA 4A State Champions picked up right where they left off.

The North Penn Knights (1-0) kicked off their season by defeating The CB West Bucks (0-1) 1-0, in a tight, neck and neck, down to the wire matchup.

“CB West always plays us tough, we knew that coming in. They get numbers back and transition really well, they’re a hard-working team and I was happy that we were able to keep them off the board,” said Chris Depeppe following his first-ever win as official head coach of the Knights.

Early in the first half, both teams were feeling each other out. Not many chances either way. The best chance for the Knights came off of Junior Hunter Stites big ankle-breaking play in the back that led to a nice shot by Senior Josh Jones that just clanged off the right post and flew out of bounds.

“We came in saying don’t expect things to be beautiful right off the bat, we knew that there were going to be some rough spots and that we were going to have to work through them. However, I thought, for the most part, we controlled the game pretty well,” Coach Depeppe said.

The Knights kept the Bucks in check by not allowing them anything offensive via. strong defensive play in the back from Kevin Murphy and Ryan Mindick. 2nd-year players, Dominik Gedek and Roman Ilovski played strong in the midfield and created a bunch of quality scoring chances throughout the game.

Toward the 65th minute, It began to seem like it was only a matter of time until the Knights would find the back of the net. That’s when Sophomore Nate Kim hit a beautiful ball into the box that bounced off of 6’5” Josh Jones and eventually landed right on the head of newly acquired Wissahickon transfer, Jovani Gonzalez.

“Nate played a great ball in, and Jovani, who has been playing great all training long did a good job of burying it into the back of the net. I am happy he was able to score a goal in his debut,” Josh Jones said.

Even Though the Knights captured the lead late, the Bucks still refused to back down. With 4 minutes left, CB West got a ball into the box and forced goalkeeper Sawyer Meade to dive across and come up with a miraculous game-saving stop. 

“That was huge, right on the goalline, he definitely saved us there. We left someone unmarked at the back post, and they could have easily punished us for that, but Sawyer came up big,” Jones added.

On Tuesday, Sawyer notched his 12th career shutout, and second consecutive against the Bucks. The players and everyone on the team are extremely pleased with his game as of late, and they love how strong he is playing in the back.

“That was an amazing save from him, great reaction time. He’s been steady for us so far and he is playing with a lot of confidence back there,” Depeppe touched on.

CB West will get their rematch with North Penn in two weeks’ time on Thursday, October 8th.

In the meantime, The Knights will look to remain undefeated, when they face Pennridge back on the turf, Thursday at 3:30.