Photo: Jenna Lewis

After two weeks of play, teams are establishing themselves. There are a few surprises.

Catholic League

LaSalle beat O’Hara 2-0, with Matt Lucas and Dave Price assisting one another for both goals.

Judge continues to win, beating Conwell-Egan 2-0 with two goals from Abrahem Lucas. Judge beat Archbishop McDevitt 6-0 on Saturday. Joe Hansen got two goals and an assist in the first half.

Lansdale is also undefeated, beating Archbishop Ryan 3-0 with goals from Jake Saba, Ryan Magarity, and Andrew Kobylarz. Freshmen keeper Jack Lane continues to do well, with seven saves in that game, and two shutouts in league play.

St. Joes beat Bishop Carroll 5-1, to join the undefeated group after two weeks. Carroll’s keeper Tom Lutz had eleven saves. It’s a tough day for a keeper when he has eleven saves and five still go in. Tolu Ibikunle of St. Joes returned from an Achilles injury and provided the first two assists for his team. Maybe I’ll go pull my Achilles. It won’t make me seventeen though.

Wood beat Conwell-Egan 2-0 on Friday, and improves to 1-1-0 on the season.

Last Tuesday, Roman Catholic faced off with Bonner-Prendercast. Bonner struck first, and took that lead into half-time. Roman came back, scoring three in the first five minutes of the second half getting two from Mariano Cepeda and one from Jarett Nast. I’m wondering what Roman coach Ray DeStephanis said to those guys at half-time. Bonner got one back, for a final score of 3-2. On Friday, Roman Catholic smacked Carroll (0-3-0) with a 3-0 hammer. Ryan also continues to struggle, with a record of 0-2-1 in league play.

Conwell-Egan is 0-2-1, but they have played some tough games. McDevitt is still looking for a league result, but the good news is that they’ve already played LaSalle and Judge. Carroll is also still searching for a league result. Neuman-Goretti no longer has a team. Turns out they’d like to focus on basketball.

Public League A

Northeast beat Masterman 8-1 last Monday, and beat Franklin Towne Charter 3-2 last Wednesday to emerge as the probable front runner this year. Masterman looks to be in a tough year, adding a 0-5 loss to Lincoln last Wednesday to their woes.

Newly promoted Southern won a forfeit against Bartram (Sept. 9), and continued their week by drawing Washington 1-1 at home last Wednesday. Joseph Koroma scored for Southern, and Washington got their goal from Stephan Fytsyk. Southern’s coach Eric Weinstein reports that his goalie, Harnaik Sembhi, a senior from Gamp, (players from schools with no program are allowed to play for another school) had an excellent game, although it was his first time in goal. “He had six saves in the game, including a direct kick through traffic, late in second overtime.” Coach Weinstein said that both teams had chances, and played their bodies out in ninety degree weather on a turf field. This result serves as an announcement to the league. Southern may be a promoted team, but they come to play soccer and are not planning to drop back down.

Prep Charter also had a great week. They did not make the play-offs last year, but they are a new, strong team. They beat Fels 3-0 on last Monday. Then, on Wednesday against Central, their keeper Lautaro Bergera made thirteen saves, including two fingertip saves in the upper ninety in a game that went into sudden death overtime. Amos Himawan of PC broke away and slid the ball home for the 1-0 winner, and the whole team exploded with joy.

Bartram pulled away from Frankford after half-time on Wednesday to win. Central restored some pride by winning 7-0 against Frankford on Saturday, with two goals from Jr. Jason Pixley, and two assists from Jr. Abdul Sule.

Washington also rallied from their tough midweek result. Franklin Towne Charter scored and took the lead into half-time, but Washington came back, getting two to win 2-1. FTC will not be happy with their first two results, finishing the first week of league play 0-2-0, but they have now played the other top two teams from last year.

Public League B

Promoted Furness got a nice 8-0 win against relegated Swenson on last Tuesday but lost 0-3 to Palumbo on Thursday. Swenson’s week was tough, as they also lost to the other relegated team, Boy’s Latin, 0-3 on Thursday. I predict that Palumbo and Boy’s Latin will be strong teams in the division.

Promoted Science Leadership Academy faced off with The High School of the Future on Thursday. SLA took a one goal lead into half time, but HSF found four in the second half. It was a duel of goalies, as the chances were close to equal. Jonas Dunakin of SLA had seven saves. While HSF’s Kevin Alceride had 6 and allowed one and Walter Cooper in the second half had four.

Public League C

Last Tuesday, Kensington and Edison fought into half-time with the score at 1-1, but fitness became an issue as Kensington packed an unanswered five into Edison’s goal in the second half. Edison lost again on Friday, falling to Roxborough, 2-6. Roxborough had started their week with a 2-5 loss to Ben Franklin on Monday. Benjamin Franklin was playing with only ten players. For Benjamin Franklin, Ismaila Saka had one goal and two assists. Manuel Salazar and Ibrihim Toure had two goals each.

Ben Franklin is an interesting team to watch. The coach, who started the team this year, is also the dean of the high school. He told me that at his school there is some ethnic strife between Latinos and the African students, which sometimes comes to his office and he hopes the soccer team will help to bring them together. He also reports having some real talent on the team. So far they are 2-0-0.