Photo: Northeast’s Adin Hernandez-Carrera carries the ball toward the Central goal. Courtesy of Kyla Brown.
B Division
When Furness and Ben Franklin faced off on October 7, 2014 it was effectively a B Division championship. Ben Franklin could come in first with a win based on the tiebreaker being head-to-head, while Furness was undefeated and a draw or better would see the South Philly school move to first place.
A quick start for Furness, finding two goals in ten minutes, created a hole for Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin fought back, earning and converting a penalty before the half time whistle, while dominating play. Ben Franklin continued to dominate play but could not break through before Furness hit a long distance wonder goal. Ben Franklin’s prolific Nyuma Koleh quickly added a second and the game ended in a flurry as Franklin fought for a goal. The final whistle ended that hope.
Furness can thank midfielder and offensive maestro Jawad Khan for the win, as well as defensive leader and captain Kamran Khan.
The table reflects results through October 14, 2014, but places have not changed.
| Division B | Win | Loss | Tie |
| Furness | 10 | 0 | – |
| Franklin | 8 | 2 | – |
| Masterman | 7 | 3 | – |
| E&S | 7 | 3 | – |
| Frankford | 5 | 5 | – |
| Kensington | 5 | 5 | – |
| King | 3 | 6 | 1 |
| Future | 3 | 6 | 1 |
| Boys Latin | 2 | 8 | – |
| FLC | 0 | 10 | – |
Ben Franklin ended the week with a needed win against Masterman, 6-1, earning the second spot into the playoffs and promotion. Boys Latin and FLC seem destined for relegation, but with only ten teams in the division, and the probable addition of a number of charter school teams to the league in 2015, I would suggest that they should stay up and make the B Division a twelve team division.
C Division
Undefeated Science Leadership Academy met similarly undefeated Swenson in an unofficial C Division championship. Swenson’s Sean Haddock was big, scoring twice, including a goal with 1:30 left to ice the game, 3-1. Swenson coach Craig Robinson credits his senior midfield, William Kyei, Noah Johnson, and Arjol Shpuza, for their leaderships role in the big win.
The table reflects results through October 14, 2014, but places have not changed.
| Division C | Win | Loss | Tie | Pts |
| Swenson | 8 | 0 | – | 24 |
| SLA | 8 | 1 | – | 24 |
| Roxborough | 6 | 2 | – | 18 |
| Del Val | 5 | 3 | – | 15 |
| Edison | 4 | 4 | – | 12 |
| Bodine | 3 | 5 | – | 9 |
| Penn Treaty | 2 | 7 | – | 6 |
| Mastbaum | 1 | 7 | – | 3 |
| KIPP | 0 | 8 | – | 0 |
A Division
Northeast are one game away from an undefeated season behind the sensational left foot of Adin Hernandez-Carrera. He scored twice in NE’s 3-2 win against Central on October 8, 2014. The table of standings below reflects all results with only one league game remaining.
| Division A | Win | Loss | Tie |
| Northeast | 11 | 0 | – |
| Washington | 9 | 2 | – |
| Fels | 8 | 3 | – |
| Central | 8 | 3 | – |
| PACS | 7 | 4 | – |
| Olney | 5 | 5 | 1 |
| Lincoln | 5 | 6 | – |
| Prep | 4 | 6 | 1 |
| FTC | 4 | 7 | – |
| Southern | 2 | 9 | – |
| Bartram | 1 | 8 | 2 |
| Palumbo | 0 | 9 | 2 |
Northeast finished top, followed by Washington. Prep made the playoffs on the last day of play, pushing by FTC for eighth place. Palumbo and Bartram look set for the drop to B Division. For the storied Bartram program that won the league title in 2010, this is a difficult ending, but the team should do well in the B Division. For Palumbo it was one season in the top flight before back to the B Division. The playoffs are set up now for the Public League.
Tomorrow, SLA plays MaST for the final seed into the play in round. On Thursday the winner of that game will face PACS. Olney will play Swenson. Lincoln will face Ben Franklin, and Prep will face Furness. Winners move on to the quarterfinals next Tuesday.
Catholic League
An up and down week for front runner La Salle saw them beat Wood on Tuesday, pretty much securing first place. Then the Explorers had their first league loss to Lansdale on Friday. Conwell Egan thumped their way into the playoffs past McDevitt, 5-0. Lansdale beat Carroll on Sunday to claim a bye.
| Team | GP | Win | Loss | Tie | Pts | |||
| La Salle *** | 11 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 28 | |||
| Father Judge *** | 11 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 28 | |||
| Archbishop Wood *** | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 25 | |||
| Lansdale Catholic *** | 11 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 22 | |||
| Roman Catholic *** | 10 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 21 | |||
| St Joes | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 20 | |||
| Archbishop Carroll | 11 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 18 | |||
| Archbishop Ryan *** | 11 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 10 | |||
| Monsignor Bonner *** | 11 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 9 | |||
| Conwell Egan *** | 11 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 8 | |||
| Bishop McDevitt | 11 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 3 | |||
| Cardinal O’Hara | 11 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
Playoffs start on Thursday, with tenth place Conwell-Egan traveling to seventh place Carroll, and ninth place Bonner facing off with eighth place Ryan.
One correction, PCL playoffs start Friday.
Can you explain why MaST plays SLA “for the final seed into the play in round”? MaST doesn’t play in the public league but gets a chance at the playoffs by playing a C division team?? Doesn’t seem quite fair if you ask me.
Donna,
Great question. The answer is actually very complicated. MaST is a Philadelphia Charter School, but they did not want to join the Public League but instead joined Bicentennial League, citing their belief that the Public League has cheaters.
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However, District One authorities, not sure who, decided that because MaST was a Philadelphia Charter School, they are probably cheaters, so they wouldn’t be able to play for states up there. MaST believes they should get a chance to play for states. District 12 and the public league doesn’t want them to interlope into the playoffs this way, but has no choice.
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Some people, myself included have asked that MaST just join the public league, and work their way up the divisions. They are not interested in this right now.
Interesting. Thanks for the info and clarification. I still don’t understand how they can “opt-out” of the public league but at least there’s sort of an explanation that I can give my kid (freshman@Masterman). Our older son played in the catholic league which was pretty straight forward. Thanks again. Love the blog.