Dangerous mix of patience, speed sends Avonworth past Mt. Pleasant in 2A quarterfinals

By: Brennan Valladares
Thursday, October 23, 2025 | 10:34 PM

Patience and speed don’t necessarily go hand in hand. Speed connotes being rushed and forced. Patience lets things play out as they come — it’s antithetical to speed.

But in Avonworth’s 4-0 shutout of Mt. Pleasant in the WPIAL Class 2A boys soccer quarterfinals Thursday night, it was patience that opened opportunity for speed to take over.

“Well, lately, we’ve been just talking about being patient,” Antelopes coach Ahmed Affaneh said after the win.

“We have the talent to play as a team, to really get everybody to touch the ball and build create opportunities off of simple possessions, right? Because we have the skill to break through, the speed that we have – whether it’s on the left, the right, up top, you know, through the middle – we have the speed all over the place. It’s just being patient, allowing the opportunities to build and picking the right ones, you know? And so we talk about that it’s OK to wait.”

With the shutout, the Antelopes (17-2-1) now have 13 clean sheets and have outscored their opponents 122-12. They are yet to let up a goal in the postseason.

Mt. Pleasant’s season ended after advancing to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2020.

The Antelopes’ patience paid off in the first half. After several shots went high and wide, sophomore Liam Dugan emerged from a chaotic sequence in front of Mt. Pleasant’s goal for the first score of the game and his second of the year at the 37th minute.

Then, with seven seconds left in the half, senior striker Cody Cwynar sent a shot toward the goal that rebounded off goalkeeper Grayson Gardner. Before Gardner could recover, Cwynar’s attacking counterpart, Jimmy Quinn, flew in and powered the ball in for the 2-0 lead.

At the half, the Antelopes had 11 shots to two for the Vikings (15-5).

“So the last game we played against McGuffey,” Affaneh said, “we waited till the 30th minute just to score a goal.

“But it’s OK. You possess the ball. When you have the ball, the other team doesn’t have an opportunity to score, right? And so we try to push those things here, especially late in the year, as you play against better and better teams who are going to be looking to do similar things.”

In the 55th minute, junior Eli Silvey scored off a rebound, effectively sealing the win. At the 67th minute, Calder Mahan set up Nate Kline for his 20th goal on a breakaway.

The Antelopes will face a familiar foe in No. 9 Beaver in the semifinals. In Section 2-2A, Avonworth won 2-1 in both games against Beaver.

Affaneh believes his team is prepared for the next matchup and the playoffs ahead.

“(Beaver is) a really strong team, and in my opinion, honestly, probably one of the best, if not the best, team we saw all year,” he said.

“… How do we prepare for this moment? I think our section prepared us for it, right? I mean, we’ve had the talent to play against all year, top to bottom. … So we’ve been constantly challenged to stay on point and really try to develop and produce in any scenario. So I think our section play has, you know, prepared us to face teams like we see in the playoffs.”

Tags: Avonworth, Mt. Pleasant