PHILADELPHIA – Any game involving Philadelphia Catholic League powerhouses is bound to be entertaining. The match-up yesterday evening between Roman Catholic and St. Joe’s Prep sure did not disappoint family and friends in attendance.
Although the first half possession looked even, the Cahillites took advantage of their opportunities on offense with senior captain Kieran Flaherty adding a early goal off an assist from junior, Jared Fielding. Roman sophomore, Jared Dillon, also found the back of the net after a pass from senior midfielder, Michael Brown, to send the Hawks into the half trailing two goals.
“Our focus was to play basic one-two touch soccer and keep the ball moving because we know St. Joe’s Prep is a hard nose team, and that they were going to attack hard and weren’t going to give up, which was evident,” said Roman head coach Ray DeStephanis.
The second half started out slow for both teams, but the Hawks’ veterans managed to find their groove. Senior captains, Christopher Hibbs and Andrew Bracken, added two quick back-to-back goals, tying the game midway through the half. In the first overtime, the Hawks attempted to capitalize on two corner kicks, which were blocked by Roman’s defenders. Then it was senior captain, Seth Stangler, who rose to the occasion in the second OT scoring the game winning goal to give the Cahillites their first league win of the season. Final: Roman 3, SJP 2.
Winning goal from Roman senior captain Seth Stangler
As reigning PCL champions, coach DeStephanis, explained how he keeps his team's winning mentality from season to season.
“We stress for the guys to obviously enjoy their time, but that they need to keep the same fight and desire that they had last year coming into this year,” said DeStephanis. “We have to train just as hard, if not harder. The bulls eye is bigger on our back and we have to be ready for everyone’s best shot.”
Although the Cahillites came away with the “W,” there is always room for improvement.
“We have to have better team defense, if we tighten that up we will be fine for the rest of the year,” said DeStephanis.
Roman's Seth Stangler recaps the game & scoring the OT goal
Senior captain Arthur Dolan addresses Roman's team goals for the season
“50 Years of Excellence”
After the game, Hawks head coach James Murray couldn’t help but glisten after the way his team battled on the field. With 25 PCL Championships under his belt and 40 consecutive playoff berths, Murray knows excellence when he sees it.
“That was Prep Soccer tonight,” said Murray who is entering his 50th and final season.
As the second most winningest coach in the state of Pennsylvania, Murray understands that with winning comes losing.
“I’m the world’s worst loser, I told the team, ‘you don’t want to dislike it, you want to hate losing, learn and move on,'” said Murray who conveyed that message to his team following the loss. “We started a little slowly, and we don’t like to do that. My message at halftime to the team was ‘Look we gave them two goals, but we have a lot of gas left in our tanks.’ And I think that’s what our guys showed. When you go into the golden goal, sudden death overtime, it’s kind of a grab bag at that point.”
Despite losing their first PCL match-up, Murray and the Hawks recently defeated a powerful Episcopal Academy team 1-0 this past Tuesday.
“We had a great match against a good Episcopal team who just came back from playing a few top teams in England. And we beat them. So I expect we will be there (in the PCL playoffs) in the end.”
Looking ahead, Murray is looking at this first league meeting as a break-out start of the season for the Hawks.
“I think a lot of people are going to be thinking, ‘Oh my God, The Prep is back.”
Roman Catholic Goal Scorers: 1st goal – Kieran Flaherty, Asst. from Jared Fielding. 2nd goal – Jared Dillon, Asst. Michael Brown. 3rd goal – Seth Stangler, Asst. Jared Dillon.
St. Joe’s Prep Goal Scorers: 1st goal – Christopher Hibbs, Asst. from Colin Donnelly. 2nd goal – Andrew Bracken, Asst. Colin Marshall