Falcons are district champs
Ethan Heydt took to social media last Tuesday night to post a picture of some hardware with the caption, “Wasn’t leaving high school without one of these.”
John Yurconic’s tweet read: “I was sick and tired of silver.”
Mason Groff may have been the most humble and modest: “I love soccer.” The Salisbury senior came up with the program’s biggest play in this group’s four-year career.
As Salisbury went into last week’s district championship game, this senior class was 0-3 in championship matches over their high school careers. That included a loss in last year’s district title game and a heartbreaker in the Colonial League championship just a week prior.
The Falcons broke that streak last week at Emmaus High School. Salisbury (20-1-2) pitched another shutout Groff came through with the game-winning goal in double overtime to defeat Palisades, 1-0, in the District 11 Class 2A championship.
“It’s so much better to go as a team winning,” Groff said. “We’ve been to so many finals in our careers these four years. To finally do it my senior year, everyone’s senior year, is great. This senior class has worked so hard, and all of the underclassmen have too. To go to states is amazing.”
Salisbury advanced to the PIAA tournament where it faced District 2 champion Scranton Prep on Tuesday in the first round. It was the second time this group has been to states, but only the first as a district champion.
“We’ve had some opportunities obviously, but those opportunities went by the wayside,” said head coach Mark Allinson, who last won a district crown in 2011. “We played two very, very good teams in those district finals. Moravian went on to win a state title, and Northwsetern made it to third in the state. We waited our turn. These seniors waited their turn and are awarded for their four years.”
After 95 minutes of scoreless play after regulation and one overtime session, Salisbury felt a little bit of déjà vu after the two teams went into extra time in the regular season. The Falcons ended up winning that match 1-0 in double overtime as well, but did not want to leave anything up to chance with penalty kicks the next order of duty.
Instead, just minutes into the second overtime, Ethan Heydt created space to the left of Palisades’ goal. He positioned a pass in front of the Pirates’ net, and Groff was there to get a head on it and direct the ball into the right side of the net.
“Ethan put a perfect cross right on my head,” Groff said. “It’s a cliché but it felt right and I just went up and hit it.
“As soon as it was getting to overtime, we were all getting a little agitated. We really wanted that goal. We kept pushing with the intensity. Everyone worked hard.”
“We were sort of knocking at the door,” Allinson said. “Patrick [Adams] had that one that hit off the post. Mason, he hasn’t gotten all of the publicity that the other three have, but he is certainly a good player in his own right. Given the opportunity, he was able to capitalize on that opportunity for me and score.”
After a slow start to the game, Salisbury started to generate its fair share of solid looks on goal in the second half. Heydt and Adams created a majority of those shots, including a left-footed strike with less than 12 minutes to play in regulation that bounced off the right goal post. Heydt put another ball on target with less than three minutes to play, but Palisades’ goalie Dylan Buccigrossi came through with a diving save.
Palisades (15-7) had its share of chances as well, but the Falcons’ defensive unit and goal keeper Tyler Keller did a stellar job of not allowing Cooper Moyer, who has over 100 career goals, to get in a rhythm offensively.
“Luckily we were able to shut him down defensively,” Allinson said. “I think all four of those backs collapsed on him when he got possession of the ball. He got some quality looks. He put a zinger through the upper right that almost went in. We’ll take another shutout. I think this is our 15th shutout this season.”
The winner of Tuesday’s game will advance to the district quarterfinals on Saturday with a time and location to be determined.