Soccer
– a game they will be favored in – while hoping the results of Phoenixville (7-3 PAC), which faces Upper Merion Thursday and Frontier first place Pottsgrove Friday, fall in their favor.
The results did indeed when the Bears routed Norristown and Phoenixville finished with a loss to Pottsgrove to send the Bears into the PAC Final Four.
The Bears scored first – Jimmy Towers’ excellent solo effort set up an easy score for Kidwell – and then put on a dominant second-half display that saw Kidwell score less than two minutes in on a breakaway from a Will Schul through ball before Kyle Sheahan sealed it with five minutes to play.
“We matched their intensity and we knew that if we went that extra 10-percent every time to every ball that we would win this game,” Verma said. “We knew that if we could get that intensity from every person on the field we would win.”
Chase Parr’s strike from 35 yards out in the 32nd minute gave Spring-Ford a jolt, but the Rams (8-1 Liberty, 11-1 PAC) could not parlay it into much more.
With Verma, Sam Marks and Will Schul in the midfield lending support to the defensive line of Erik Recke, Ben Margavich, Ben Wise and Owen Kulig, the Bears largely kept the Rams, led by midfielder Ronnie Minges and forward Michael Hyduke, at bay.
Spring-Ford, No. 11 in last week’s district rankings, has assured itself of a place in the PAC Final Four as the Liberty Division winner and was pushing for the top seed. Instead it got a reminder that there are no walkovers.
“We came out a little flat tonight,” Parr said. “We knew we needed the win to get the No. 1 seed in the conference playoffs and we didn’t come out with that. I feel like we came in thinking we should have won just by being there even though we knew it was going to be a really tough game. We have to pull together ... it’s frustrating.”
HIGHLIGHT REEL >> The goal of the night came from the boot of Parr. An aspiring filmmaker who put together an excellent hype video for last week’s Spring-Ford/Perkiomen Valley football showdown and intends on attending film school, the senior midfielder would have loved to be behind the camera for his goal. Performing was just as good though.
“I’ve had about five shots this year, all from 30-35 yards out,” he said. “I’ve put some real close but I finally got the one. Only five shots on the year so the sixth one was the charm.” ALEXANDER THE GREAT
>> A must-win occasion was perfect for the Bears’ Kidwell, the team’s top scorer the past two seasons.
“In big moments I feel like I do my best, against big teams,” Kidwell said.
“He’s been clicking really great lately. He’s on it every time and scoring for us,” Verma said.
BLIP ON THE RADAR >> Despite taking its first league defeat, Spring-Ford has returned to PAC prominence this season and still has designs on winning its first PAC title since 2013.
“We’re a real tight group overall,” Parr said. “We like each other, we play for each other. It’s finally come together. We had two down years in a row and now we’re back to what SpringFord soccer usually is.
“Going in to the year no one expected us to do anything. We knew we could and knew we had the talent but we finally put it together. We have more depth this year and we’re playing well.”
BY THE NUMBERS >> The teams were level on shots on goal, 6-6. Boyertown keeper Connor McKeown had five saves; SpringFord’s Kyle Allan made three . ... Boyertown held the advantage in corners, 2-0.
BOYERTOWN 7, NORRISTOWN 0 >> The Bears got contributions at the offensive end from nine players as they rolled over the Eagles in PAC play.
Alex Kidwell set the tone with two goals and two assists. Boyertown got its other goals from Nik Verma, Nate Reinhard, Kaleb Miller, Ben Margevich and Jimmy Towers (one assist), with other assists credited to Will Schul, Garrett Halteman and Connor Reiss.