The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Pennridge, Souderton come full circle after October match
Two local squads to meet in state championship game
It’s not often two different teams can point to the same moment as the turning point in their respective seasons.
But after a long and rainy night on Oct. 11, in a game where they had played to a scoreless draw after 100 minutes of soccer and a half-hour lightning delay, the Pennridge and Souderton girls’ soccer teams left feeling pretty good about themselves. The path each team has cut since then would prove they were right on.
Saturday, Pennridge and Souderton will meet for the third time this season, this time at HersheyPark Stadium when they meet for the PIAA 4A state title at 4 p.m.
“We all say the second Pennridge game was our turning point,” Souderton senior midfielder and co-captain Campbell Power said. “We think it’s one of the best games we’ve played. We came out, we were really, really excited and ever since then, everyone’s been motivated. We saw how we can play and we keep saying we have a refusal to lose.”
Neither team won that night six weeks ago, neither scored but soccer is the type of game where a score can mask how a match played out. Like Souderton, Pennridge knew it had turned in a season-defining effort.
“We got more of a fighting mentality to battle through everything and whatever circumstances we’d see,” Rams senior midfielder and co-captain Ashley Groeber said. “I think that was our first game this season going into overtime and we all just battled. It helped us in the postseason, we battled back against Parkland and ended up winning that game.”
Since Oct. 11, Pennridge has won 10 of its last 11 matches while Souderton won nine out of its last 10. Both teams’ only loss in that span came to Conestoga, Pennridge in the District I semifinals and Souderton in the district title game.
Pennridge won the teams’ first match up on Sept. 17 when Lindsey DeHaven headed home a goal with 7:44 left for a 1-0 Rams win. The fact the teams have combined