Penalty Kicks Doom the Falcons, Fall to Ryan After Scoreless QuarterFinal

As the clock struck 9:30 on Friday night, a ghostly silence enveloped George Todt’s Field at Archbishop Ryan High School even as Ryan edged North in a penalty kick shoot out and its players rejoiced.  McCarthy laid face down and motionless in the goal mouth suffering not through this loss, but the possibility that this might be North’s last soccer game forever. The crowd was great even with the Phils in the World Series. In fact, the latest Neilson ratings showed that nationally the audience for the Phils/Yanks was better than last year’s but locally it was smaller. I have to think because a couple hundred fans of both schools not to mention some soccer fanatics who wanted to see two storied programs battle were partly to blame.

It is hard to imagine what the league might be like without North, it certainly will not be better, it will not command the same respect and will change the face of Philadelphia soccer forever.  The latest actions by the Office of Catholic Education that will close three schools will reduce the league to 13 teams and removing the most storied of them from their ranks.  By the time school starts next year, this office might be called the Office of Suburban Catholic Education.

Let’s first give credit to the Raiders who advance to the semi-finals of the Catholic League to face LaSalle today.  They played hard from the outset, had North on its heals for much of the second half and finally was able to move to the next round on the basis of besting North on spot kicks as the boys played for 110 minutes without a goal between them.  In the shoot out, all four of Ryan’s takers made their shots.  McCarthy tried in vein to stop the shots but the Raiders powered each shot into the metal cages.  North on the other hand missed two kicks and subsequently lost the shoot out by the score of 4-2.

The game was a typical North/Ryan slugfest; two heavy weights counter punching most of the fight, looking for the knockout punch. This punch would not come for either team however as each team’s defense limited any sustained attack.  McCarthy, as he has all year and really, all career, stopped Ryan  time and time again.  The Ryan back four was able to limit North’s attackers most of the night.  Its two best chances were in the second half when Khristian Hall hit a laser to the short side from 10 out but the Ryan keeper was able to get his arm on it, in the 55^th minute, midfielder, Austin Baranuskas unmarked,  missed the short side from 12 yards, five minutes later.

The overtime period was fraught with tenseness but neither team really mounted much of a threat and that took the game to penalty kicks. Martinez and Ward solidly beat the Ryan keeper but Hall and Woodruff missed their chances.