Deer Lakes boys shut out North Catholic again, advance to WPIAL semifinals

By: Ted Sarneso
Thursday, October 24, 2024 | 10:21 PM

It’s always tough beating a team three times in a season.

But the Deer Lakes boys soccer team did it against North Catholic on Thursday with a WPIAL Class 2A semifinals berth on the line. The third-seeded Lancers beat the sixth-seeded Trojans, 3-0, at Lancer Stadium in West Deer.

Earlier this fall, Deer Lakes beat North Catholic by scores of 1-0 and 2-0.

“Coming in, we knew playing a team with that style and skill level three times, we knew we had to come in and fight for a win,” Deer Lakes coach Aaron Smith said.

Said North Catholic coach Scott Schlegel: “They’re a disciplined group, and hats off to them and the way they played. There are games we look at and we score a lot of goals, yet we played Deer Lakes and we didn’t score against them all year.”

Cuyler Crim scored a pair of goals, Peyton Kushon added one and Collin Rodgers had all three assists.

“I put the ball in the right place at the right time, I guess,” said Rodgers. “Couldn’t get the ball off my foot fast enough. When my teammates score, it feels as good as if I score. Doesn’t matter who scores, the only thing that matters is if we come out with the win.”

Said Smith: “Collin’s an athlete, and as we get farther into the playoffs, he gets better and better. He’s a pressure player, and we really counted on him tonight. His speed is a huge help for us. He had a dynamite game, and I’m very proud.”

Both Deer Lakes strikers were finding their way behind the Trojan defense and putting themselves in positions to find passing lanes, feed the ball into the box, or score.

“Cuyler is another guy for us that has the speed to get behind defenders, and we love getting balls in and having either Collin or Cuyler finish on the back end,” added Smith.

Both teams came in with a physical style of play, and the bumping and pushing during play started from the first whistle.

“That’s been the nature of our game, even back to when I was playing here,” said Smith. “North Catholic had to bring it as well.”

The combination of that bruising style and Deer Lakes’ speed was a big reason the Trojans had trouble getting any chances in the first half.

“At the end of the first half, they had three shots and we had two,” said Schlegel. “They had two goals, and we had none. Capitalizing on chances is everything in this game, especially with their defense. They had some great finishes around the net and in the box. Got to tip our hats to them.”

Deer Lakes started the game playing with more confidence and poise, exactly what Smith was looking for in the second half in the team’s previous game against Hopewell.

“The two practices we had before tonight, the players were pretty calm and collected,” Smith said. “They came out of the locker room calm, in the warm-ups they were calm. I said, maybe we don’t need to say anything to them right now. We didn’t and they went after it.”

Said Rodgers: “We got the sense that because it was North Catholic, a team we had already beaten this season, why wouldn’t we be calm and content with how we know we can play?”

As he did on Monday against Hopewell, Kushon opened the scoring by chipping the ball past North Catholic’s goalkeeper.

Rodgers received the throw in and floated a cross-pitch pass to Kushon, who corralled the ball as Trojans goalkeeper Drew Schedlbauer came out to make a defensive play. Kushon chipped it past him for a 15-yard strike.

“Peyton just seems to be in the right place at the right time, and he’s been doing it since he was a freshman,” said Smith. “He just finds a way to get in behind the opposition and get a shot off. He did it again tonight.”

Five minutes later, Rodgers had room to move on the far sideline and blew past the defender covering him and then made a tip-toe deke past the next defender and found Crim open in the middle.

Crim passed on shooting the one-timer, and his patience paid off as he moved a little to his right faked a shot left and then buried the ball on the right side.

North Catholic came out in the second half looking to get back in the game and it was a true testament to the Lancers defense that they were able to thwart any opportunity the Trojans could develop.

“Hats off to them in the second half,” said Smith. “We knew they were going to bring it and they did in the first 10 minutes of that period. It was worrisome. Me and the coaches had to yell to get them to bring that energy we saw in the first half.”

The defensive pair of Zane Spence and Noah Shurina gave the Lancers that energy by being a two-man wall that sent the ball back towards the North Catholic side of the field any time the Trojans got close.

“That’s a solid defensive team, “said Schlegel. “They’ve got a back line that’s formidable and causes us to think differently about how we’re going to attack.”

The Lancers added to their lead in the second half when Rodgers sent a ball across the Trojans goal, and after a few players missed an opportunity to either clear or score, Crim waited patiently at the far post and drilled a shot that went in, giving Deer Lakes a 3-0 lead.

Deer Lakes now heads into the semifinals against No. 2 seed Avonworth on Monday night at a time and place to be determined.

Coach Smith knows that his team will face tougher tests as they go deeper into the WPIAL playoffs.

“It’s going to be an absolute battle and it’s going to come down to who doesn’t make a mistake and who’s going to take a chance,” Smith said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes to overtime, don’t want to, but it comes down to who wants it more.”

Tags: Deer Lakes, North Catholic