TOWAMENCIN – “Coming back as defending state champions we just wanted to live up to the name we set up for ourselves coming into this year,” said Senior Jojo Dalwadi following his game winning goal in overtime on Monday night.

The 6 seeded North Penn Knights took care of business by defeating the 11th seeded Perkiomen Valley Vikings by a score of 1-0 in Overtime in the first round of the District Playoffs on Monday.

The play between the two teams was tight the entire game. North Penn pressured a lot early, via strong play from underclassman Nate Kim, Kyle McKeever and Alex Stewart. However, the Vikings still had their chances and picked up the pressure late. Senior goalkeeper Sawyer Meade came up big down the stretch, which helped the Knights force overtime.

It only took the boys 9 minutes into overtime to find the “Golden Goal”. Senior Co-Captain and Lousiville Commit Josh Jones headed the ball into the direction of the goalie and it looked as if the keeper was going to be able to cover up. That is when Dalwadi slipped through the back of the defense and buried the ball top shelf, sending the Knights into the next round.

“It has been a great couple of weeks here for [Jojo]. He was Player of the week on the Suburban One site so people are really getting to see what a tremendous kid he is off the pitch. He is the student body president and is just an all around hard working guy. Soccer may not be his life’s pursuit because he’s got so many other things going on in his life but for him to go in there and bury the game winner is classic Jojo,” said head coach Chris Deppepe.

Following the goal, the Knights wasted no time letting the celebration ensue.

“Obviously I have never scored in a situation like that before so I did not really know what to do. Josh was pointing me to the flag so I was like okay I will run over there. Next thing I know it was getting dog piled,” Dalwaldi joked.

The Knights are undefeated on their home turf this season and following a couple other upsets around the District, the Knights will be back at home on Thursday for round 2.

“I’m not surprised by the upsets and I can’t wait to see how the rest of the teams did. We are excited to be moving on, but obviously having a home game is all the better. We will just continue take them as they come,” Depeppe said. 

North Penn will be back in action when the face off against Colonial Division rival CB South for the third time this season on Thursday evening.