“It was painful, put it that way,” said Fofana, Ryan’s leading scorer with 13 goals. “It was really, really painful. Not being able to do what I could do in such an important game . . . I never want to go through that again.”

Thankfully for Fofana, his mates played arguably their best game of the year. Needing nothing less than a victory to secure the final playoff spot, senior Dave Hoxhalli scored 30 seconds into the game, senior Dylan Devlin tallied twice, sophomore Teddy Westervelt added the exclamation point, and senior goalie Bryce Fadako was perfect in the Raiders’ 4-0 triumph. 

“Having to beat O’Hara was a lot of pressure,” said Fofana. “The thing is, though, we didn’t expect to have to do that. We thought before the season that we were a playoff team. It just took a lot longer than we anticipated.”

Fofana pointed to a 2-0 loss to Devon Prep in a league opener as a lesson that may provide the key to what occurs from here on out. 

“We finally came together as a team after many games of not playing together,” said Devlin. “Before the game we knew we needed the three points badly in order to get a chance to play in the playoffs and it was our last official league game. Personally, I knew I had to make an impact since our main goal scorer was injured.”

Ryan wasn’t the only team on life support. Bonner-Prendergast also needed dramatics to avoid elimination. Needing to defeat winless Bishop McDevitt to clinch a playoff invitation, the Friars appeared to be a lock.

But the Lancers had other ideas, and they stunned the Friars with an early goal. 

“I was shocked at first,” said B-P senior Andrew Markopoulos. “But I knew we had time to take the game back over.”

With 14 minutes remaining, Markopoulos scored the most important goal of his career to tie the game, which eventually advanced into sudden-death overtime. It was there – just six minutes in – that senior Cillian Gilsenin sent the home crowd into a frenzy when he won the game with his first-ever overtime goal.

The victorious Friars secured the 10thseed and on Tuesday will travel to seventh-seed Archbishop Carroll. The two teams tied, 1-1, in their regular-season bout.

“I just remember the ball coming out from the box and I was standing around the 20-yard line,” said Gilsenin. “My first instinct was to just take a touch and shoot, and it turned out to be a pretty good hit and it went in. It was pretty exciting for my first overtime goal to be in such a big game.”

Bonner-Prendergast senior goalie Mike Perretta was impressed with the Friars’ resolve.

“We went through adversity,” said Perretta. “I’m very proud of my team on how we fought through it and reached the playoffs.”

The previous game, Perretta and his teammates had blanked Ryan, 1-0. It is believed to be the first time any Bonner team, including the previous Msgr. Bonner, had shut out the Raiders. 

“We were fired up from the start because we knew our season was on the line, so I just fed off our team’s energy,” said Perretta. “It was an all-around team effort, and it’s definitely a career highlight having a shutout in that big of a game.”

McDevitt senior Matt Duddy, who scored the Lancers’ lone goal on a free kick, said the result was disheartening.

“We went in with the mindset to get the victory and spoil their season,” said Duddy. “Every one of our players wanted it, but unfortunately, a couple of errors cost us the game.”

On Tuesday, Bonner will visit seven-seed Archbishop Carroll. The top six squads drew first-round byes. On Friday, in addition to Roman and Wood facing undetermined opponents, three-seed La Salle hosts six-seed Lansdale Catholic; four-seed St. Joseph’s Prep greets five-seed Father Judge.  

The semifinals take place October 24 at Archbishop Ryan (5 and 7:30 PM), and the Catholic League championship will be played at Northeast High School October 28 following the conclusion of the girls’ final, which starts at 1:00.

(John Knebels can be reached at jknebels@gmail.comor on Twitter @johnknebels.)

MBAP vs. McDevitt - Photos by Dan McCarty

Roman Catholic vs. La Salle - Photos by Patty Morgan

SJP vs. Wood - Photos by Geneva Heffernan