BY JEREMY GOODE

(PHOTOS BY KATHY LEISTER FOR PSD)

PHILA.,--At a certain point, the William Penn Charter boys’ soccer team was tired of feeling like The Haverford School's younger brother. Haverford had won the last three Inter-Ac championships. The past two years runner up? Penn Charter.

Two years ago, Penn Charter missed co-championing with Haverford by two points. Last year, three points.

They will not have to worry about trailing Haverford in points at the end of the season this year, because Penn Charter’s 3-2 win against Haverford at home on Fri., Oct. 24 clinched at least a co-championship for the Quakers.

“I’ve been in the league 27 years, and these just do not come around that often,” Penn Charter head coach Bob DiBenedetto said.  

Both Penn Charter and Haverford have two matches each left in the Inter-Ac. Haverford would need to win out and have Penn Charter lose out just to share the 2025 championship. At the very least, Penn Charter would only have to draw a tie against either Malvern Prep or Germantown Academy and they would be sole league champions.

It is the first time Penn Charter will have won the Inter-Ac since 2016.

While the job is not completely done yet, the win against Haverford gives Penn Charter a share of the title, and inches them that much closer to winning the league outright. Penn Charter put themselves in a position where they could clinch the Inter-Ac with a regular season game left on the schedule.

“Obviously, the season is not over; there are still games to be played, but I’m confident with the way we’ve been playing, we can do the rest that we need to do,” Jak Kraemer said. “I think we can be outright champions.”

While guaranteed at least a part of the 2025 championship, Penn Charter wants the whole thing. And their win against Haverford effectively strangles Haverford’s chances of also being co-champions.

According to the Inter-Ac’s website, there has not been a shared title between two schools since 1995, when Haverford and Episcopal earned the rights. Before that, it was 1979, between the same schools.

Penn Charter does not want to be an outlier, and it hopes that the 29-year tradition of one champion for boys’ soccer extends to 30 years. And to their credit, they have done their part. Penn Charter’s win at home against Haverford with two games remaining improves their league record to 7-0-1. They have not lost in the Inter-Ac this year. 

For a league without a playoff system, that is the key. Collecting three points for every win is a must; however, if there is an instance or two where it is a tie game late, take the tie and the point that comes with it.

And it almost came down to a tie. But it was Penn Charter that put the pressure on early.

Less than five minutes into the match, Kraemer fired a corner on goal that got to the back of the net as Haverford’s goalkeeper, Graham Costello, was unable to secure the loose ball with traffic all around.

The scored remained 1-0 in favor of Penn Charter until 18 seconds into the second half when Penn Charter’s Willem Van Beelen assisted Kraemer in front of goal for his second goal of the game.

“On the first goal, we have had success putting everyone on the goalie,” Kraemer said. “I’m really aiming to put the ball in that six area, and hopefully, someone might touch it. The second one, I know Willem is a great player… and he put a perfect ball through.”

Of course, a Haverford Penn Charter game could not be that easy. This is Haverford after all, winner of the league title the last three years. A Jose Hernandez free kick with 24 minutes left in the game led to a goal off a header. Haverford soon recorded the equalizer 48 seconds later after Finn French scored on a penalty shot after getting fouled in the box.

It was the third time Penn Charter had blown a two-goal lead to Haverford in three years. DiBenedetto was not too surprised. He admitted that Haverford were tougher, more physical, and won more balls than Penn Charter.

Penn Charter’s Miles Lynch and Haverford’s Costello are two of the best goalies in the area, but when desperate times call for desperate measures, both team’s attack are just too good. When they tied at Haverford earlier in the season, they combined for 4 goals.

This one could easily have ended at a combined four goals, but Penn Charter’s Tiernan Perkins would stick a foot out on a loose ball in front of Haverford’s goal off a Kreamer corner kick with six minutes left.

That goal was the difference.

“The ball came in, and then my fellow center back Rainer [Malhotra], he tried to kick it, and it just bounced right in front of me, and I just hit it,” Perkins Said.

When asked if it was the biggest goal of his soccer career, he responded, “definitely.”

It is fitting that this year’s team accomplished this result. Most of the team are Penn Charter lifers, according DiBenedetto.

“I grew up with most of these kids,” Perkins said. “So, it’s amazing to win something with them.”

After two years of heartbreaking finishes in which the league title was determined on the last day of the season, Penn Charter bucked the trend. It felt like a long time coming.

“Knowing that we have a share of this title either way… I’ll sleep a lot easier tonight,” DiBenedetto said.

Make no mistake, this was only step one for Penn Charter. They want the whole title without sharing.

“But we want this outright. We would like to win the next two and finish this out without a loss. That’s our next goal,” DiBenedetto said.