THE TOP TEN MOST MEMORABLE GAMES I EVER COACHED IN


    1. 1990 LMSC Gorillas U-13s vs. Fox Chase - This was the semifinals of the state cups. We were playing powerful Fox Chase who had won the State Cups the previous year at U-12 and also won at Under 10 (where they eliminated us in the quarterfinals). Their team was loaded with talent, players like Tommy Ruth, Tim Cliggett and Joey DiSalvo. We knew we would have a tough time containing their high scoring forwards so we worked on defending all week. Our hope was to shut them down and hope they would make a mistake on defense. Our defense was flawless with Jon Conway, a future MLS goalkeeper, recording a shutout and solid defensive work by Bill Heuisler, Nathan Laver, Jamie Griffin and Evan Monsky. Our game plan somehow worked. We got a free kick late in the second half which Razzaq Bauman took before Fox Chase could set up a defensive wall. His shot went between two of their defenders who were trying to setup their wall and the ball wound up in the back of the net. We held on to win 1-0 and advanced to the state championship game. The next week we beat Simpson to win the state championship.

    2. 2003 LMSC Hammerheads U-11s vs. LMSC Disasters U-12 - The Hammerheads had totally dominated the Delco League at U-9 and U-10 so when the team was U-11, we decided to play up a year in the Under 12 division. We finished in fourth place in the regular season so we qualified for the semifinals. The semifinals was a tough away match against regular season champions Spirit United 1-0. We won on a goal by Colin Fleming. Spirit would win the U-12 state cup the next spring. The Delco League championship game pitted the Hammerheads against the older Under 12 LMSC Disasters. While many of the boys on these two teams went to school together and were friends, this game was going to be a personal one, with neither team wanting anything to do with losing. Alec Weiss scored first for us but the Disasters soon mounted a lot of pressure on our team. With one minute left in regulation, the Disasters scored to force overtime. True to Hammerheads form (they were probably the most clutch team the world has ever seen), Greg Robbins scored for us to give us the win and the Delco League Under 12 championship. This could possibly be the last time a team will ever win a Delco League division one championship while playing up a year. That spring, we would the Hammerheads would win the first of their five consecutive state championships.

    3. 2003 LMSC Hammerheads U-11s vs. Hockessin U-12s - Due to their tremendous ability, the Hammerheads often entered leagues and tournaments playing up a year. In 2003, the team entered the YMS Columbus Day Tournament, playing up a year at U-12. This is a tournament that attracts many of the toughest teams on the east coast. We got out of our bracket and advanced to the semifinals where we defated SSA, New Jersey 1-0. SSA was probably the top team from New Jersey in their age group. The championship game would be held at 8:00 PM that night against the Hockessin (Delaware) Blizzard, probably the strongest U-12 team in the mid-atlantic states. This team was talented, huge, fast and well coached. The Hammerheads spent much of the time defending and did a great job of it, thanks to goalie Matt Dilks and defenders Danny DiLullo and David Dubow. With about 20 minutes left in the game, Alec Weiss stole the ball from a Hockessin defender, rushed in on a breakaway and scored the only goal of the game. Around 9:30 that night, the U-11 Hammerheads picked up their U-12 tournament championship trophies.

    4. 1986 LMSC Gorillas U-10s vs. Springfield (Virginia) Team America - Our Gorillas team was one of the top teams in this area, but the strongest teams on the east coast were all from Long Island, NY and Northern Virginia. Our second game of the Delco Columbus Day Tournament was against Springfield Team America from Virginia who had won the tournament the previous year (beating us 3-2 in the semifinals). Springfield were also the Virginia state champions. Our team housed most of their players at the tournament the year before and again in 1986. Back in May, their team housed our players in their Memorial Day Tournament. Our players had become very good friends with their players and many friendships were made during those years. The rematch at Under 10 would be one of the Gorillas' truly great games. We got up 4-0 early in the second half and finished with a 5-2 win. Beating a powerhouse team from Virginia was unheard of in those days, but our boys were phenomenal. The two teams would continue to go to each other's tournaments for many years and the friendships endured for a long time.

    5. 2003 Harriton vs. West Chester East - This was my first year at Harriton and we had a very mediocre team. Great guys, but limited on talent since the school's enrollment was remained very small until the district realigned the student population many years later. West Chester East was coached by Charlie Dodds, my boss at Rocket Sports and one of my best friends. We basically were stuck in the same office for 40 hours a week all winter, every winter. He had been my assistant coach when I was head coach at Conestoga. Since Charlie and I were such good friends, we decided to get each other on the schedule for 2002. West Chester East however was loaded with talent that year, they were a phenomenal team. They would win the Ches-Mont League that year and reach the state championship game, losing to a team from Pittsburgh in overtime. But on the night we played them, we were were phenomenal (and really, really lucky). Our game plan was to play with 9 defenders and try to score a goal on a quick counterattack. East dominated possession in the first half, but were unable to score. Finally, we cleared the ball up field. The player receiving the ball quickly played it further up the field to a teammate who was tripped up about 25 yards from the goal. Dan Weiss curled the free kick into the net to give us the lead. An almost similar play 10 minutes later gave us a penalty shot which Weiss converted. The rest of the game took place in our penalty area as East would unleash shot after shot. Our goalie, Gabe Perloe, was an average goalie but was making world class saves that night. East finally scored with five minutes left, but we hung on for a 2-1 win. Thirty minutes after the game, we were on the bus going back to Harriton. The lights to the field were all off, except one light which enabled us to see Charlie still screaming at his players as we celebrated like crazy on the bus. True to form, Charlie turned the team around after that game and East had a great run the rest of the season. We went back to being mediocre. All that mattered to me however was that I had bragging rights in the Rocket Sports office that winter.

    6. 1984 Gladwyne U-10s vs. Greater Chester Valley - This was the third year I was coaching and we had a great team, led by Richard Wilmot, TJ Carella, JP Simon, Dan Keating, Doug Renthal and Chris Keating. There were two other great teams in the league that year and we had to face one of them, Greater Chester Valley, in the semifinals. GCVSA was led by Sam Holt who also coached the Radnor High School varsity. Sam and I head been selected to be the head coaches for the two Delco League Select teams that year and we had just started tryouts around the time of our semifinal meeting. The semifinal was a very evenly matched game with both teams playing great soccer. The game was tied with two minutes left in regulation when we committed a foul in the penalty area. Sam's son Erik was their goalie. Sam told Erik to go up the field to take the penalty kick. Our goalie, Derrick Fox, was an underage goalie who was very small. I quickly yelled out to the referee that we were switching goalies. The referee told me I could not subtitute on a penalty shot, but I replied to him that I was just switching my goalie and center forward around. Richard Wilmot, the tallest player in the game, stepped into goal. Holt shot the ball wide and the game ended 1-1. The Delco League rules stated that the game was to be replayed the following week. In the re-march, forwards Wilmot, Carella and Simon would play phenomenal and we won the rematch 4-2. Many years later, Sam Holt told me that my switching Wilmot into the goal on the penalty shot totally psyched out his son, which is why he missed. I got to know Erik well and many years later we'd have a great laugh about that incident. Our boys lost the league championshp the next day, 1-0 to Nether Providence. The top boys on those three teams, Gladwyne, Nether Providence and Greater Chester Valley would form the nucleus of Sam's U-10 Delco Demons League Select team and my U-10 Delco Dynamo Select team. Four years later, the Demons all left their club teams to play together as a club team, the FC Delco Demons. Thanks to the great work of Sam Holt over those years with the Delco Select team, the Demons at Under 14 became the first Eastern Pennsylvania team ever to win a national championship. Probably their best player during that time was Will Kohler who came from the Penn Valley Soccer Club (later a part of the merger that resulted in LMSC). Will is considered to be the greatest player in the history of Lower Merion High School.

    7. 1983 Gladwyne U-10s vs. Torresdale Boys Club - Back in the 1980s, the strongest teams in the state came from inside of Philadelphia. There were many great clubs in the city, including Lighthouse, Fox Chase, United German Hungarians, Ukrainian Nationals and many others. One of the very best teams at the U-10 age group in 1983 was from the Torresdale Boys Club. We traveled into the city to play them in the third round of the state cups. Our boys played a great game that day and wound up winning 3-2. I was really happy about the win, but didn't realize the signifance of the game at the time. Later that night, I received a phone call from Ed Hochreiter, the head of Gladwyne Soccer. When I told him that we won, he was shocked. He told me that Torresdale was the top team in the city and the favorites to win the state cup that year. Later that week, I attended the monthly Delco Soccer League meeting. The league Vice President, Dick Burke, was also a commissioner for the state cups. When I arrived for the Delco League meeting, he just looked at me at said "Did you really beat Torresdale? You really beat them?" He was totally amazed at the result, thinking a Gladwyne team could not knock off such a big powerhouse team like Torresdale.

    8. 1989 Delco Dinosaurs vs. Mid-New Jersey Select - This was my fifth year coaching in the Delco Select Program. The Delco League's Select Program was starting to make a really good name for themsleves and were starting to produce some really good players. The toughest tournament for Select teams was the Pocono Cup which was held in July at East Stroudsberg University. In the history of the Delco Select program, no team from Delco had ever won this tournament. We had a phenomenal team of players, most of whom eventually played division one in college many years later. A few wound up playing professionally as well. We beat some really good teams, including Long Island Select to reach the finals of the tournament. Our opponents would be Mid-New Jersey Select who we always had some great games with. I tried to motivate our team by telling them if we could win this tournament, we would have a great chance of being selected to compete in the Dallas Cup (considered the top tournament in the country) the following year. We had a great offense consisting of Ryan O'Neill, Ryan Trout and Peter Luzak. We had a tremendous center midfielder in Ciaran Barret and a great sweeper back, Drew O'Donnell. All five would be division one college stars. We took the play to Mid-New Jersey but could not score. Finally, with 10 minutes left, Brendon Cox netted the only goal of the game. We became the first Delco Select team to win this prestigious tournament. A year later, we became the first Delco Select team to play in the Dallas Cup.

    9. 2006 Harriton vs. Bayard Rustin High School - Our Harriton team was having a great season, though at the time we were playing in the very weak Del-Val League. We went a perfect 12-0 in the league that year. Our last regular season game was a non-league game vs. Bayard Rustin, coached by my good friend Dave Tordone. His assistant that year was Will Nord who has coached at LMSC for the past 10 years. We went into the game with an 11 game unbeaten streak, but knew that Rustin was very good and well coached. The game was 0-0 with 15 seconds left when Rustin got a throw-in. Their right back ran across the field to take the throw-in. He had one of the best throw-ins I've ever seen in high school soccer. As the clock wound down, he released the ball. Our goalie deflected the ball but one of their players kicked in the rebound. I turned around to look at the scoreboard which showed there was just one second left in the game. Our 11 game unbeaten streak came to an end. The team quickly regrouped and got ready for the District Playoffs. We easily beat Holy Ghost 4-1 to advance to the semifinals where we would again fact Rustin. Our playoff game with them was just as close as when we played them two weeks before. We scored in the first half, but they scored in the second half so it was on to overtime. Early in the second and final overtime, I gave star sophomore Alec Weiss a quick rest on the bench. I put him back into the game with about three minutes left in the overtime. I switched him from the center of the field to the right side of the field and told our left winger and left midfielder to simply blast the ball across the field if they got it. Almost right away one of those players on the left side of the field slammed the ball across the field. A well rested Weiss outraced his opponent to the ball and beat the Rustin goalie (who was a teammate of Weiss in club soccer) for the game winner. The win sent us to the District Championship game against Octorara which we would easily win 2-0.

    10. 2011 Harriton vs. Lower Merion High School - Thanks to the coaching of Nick Severini, an LMSC travel team coach, the Lower Merion High School were the defending district champions. They had another great team in 2011 and were ranked in the top 10 in Southeastern PA. The game was a home night game for us. With the blessing of our athletic director, we made the night "Lower Merion Soccer Club Night" and all LMSC players wearing an LMSC jersey got into the game for free. Both schools had several hundred students in the stands, screaming all game. The atmosphere was electrifying. Lower Merion scored 45 seconds into the game, but Harriton freshman Kevin Bendesky tied it up before halftime. At haltime, over 100 kids in LMSC jerseys ran onto the field to kick their soccer balls around while the two teams rested. In the second half, the referee called a hand ball on an LM defender in the penalty box. Harriton captain Zico Gaeffke calmly converted the penalty shot. Our defense, led by Cary Carabasi and Zach Herman, withstood a strong Lower Merion offense the rest of the game and we won 2-1. The Harriton student body stormed the field to celebrate our win. Several former Harriton stars were at the game and came down to the field to congratulate the team. As the players were stretching after the game, I was talking to several members of our 2005 District Championship team, including Alex Perilstein, Austin Weinerman and Josh Broderson. Suddenly Dan Weiss (captain in 2002 and 2003) snuck up behind me and jumped on my back to celebrate. My knee immediately buckled and we were both on the ground with me screaming in pain. My knee was damaged and I was barely able to walk off the field. For the next two weeks I could barely walk and my knee was constantly buckling under me. Still, it was a great feeling to beat our township rivals. It was definitely a game the Harriton players will never forget.




    OTHER UNFORGETTABLE GAMES

    • 1982 - This was my first year of coaching club soccer. My U-10 Gladwyne team lost their first two games, to Radnor and Lansdowne. Our third game of the year was against Narberth. Matt Ogelsby scored a hat trick and we won 5-2 for my first career win. The highlight of the day came late in the game when Ogelsby tried to score a fourth goal by performing a bicycle kick. The shot was not even close to being on goal and Ogelsby landed flat on his back, giving everyone a great laugh.

    • 1984 - My Gladwyne U-10 played Vestal, New York in the Delco Columbus Day Festival. In the first half, we were aided by 40 mile an hour winds and we also went downhill. We were up 6-2 at halftime. In the second half, we went against the strong wind and also went uphill. We allowed four goals that half and barely escaped with a 6-6 tie. After the game, league Vice President Dick Burke said to me, "What happened, did both teams miss the extra point?"

    • 1990 - The LMSC Gorillas defeated Northampton 1-0 in the indoor state cup finals, it was my first state cup championship ever. Hans Davies scored the only goal of the game and goalie Jon Conway was magnificent as always.

    • 1991 - The LMSC Gorillas defeated archrival Greater Chester 3-1 in the Under 14 State Cup quarterfinals. Greater Chester had two of the very best players in the league in Jon Rutland and Ciaren Barrett. We defended well and earned a spot in the semifinals.

    • 1994 - The U-11 LMSC Lunatics played Hulmeville for the state championship. Hulmeville was a very strong team and well coached, they were probably the favorites to win the state cup. On this day however, we would play "the perfect game" and everything we did seemed to work. Bernard Horshaw scored twice in the first ten minutes of the game. We were up 3-0 at halftime. At the end of the game, it was 6-0 and we were the state champions. Everything went right for us. Also scoring for LMSC that day was Ted Domers who would later become a head coach in the LMSC Travel Team Program. Things do even out however. The following year we played Hulmeville in the quarterfinals of the state cups and totally dominated the play. We had about 40 good chances to score, but nothing went right for us that day and we lost 1-0. I guess luck tends to even out over time.

    • 1998 - My Conestoga high school team was down 1-0 against Central Bucks West in the district quarterfinals. With 30 seconds left, we got a free kick just inside the midfield line. We sent 10 players, including our goalie, up into the penalty area. The free kick was chipped the into the penalty area and a big scramble for the ball ensued. Suddenly, Jimmy Budd slammed home the game tying goal to force overtime. A minute into overtime, we hit a through ball to Budd who raced down the field to get the ball. The West goalie ran out of the box and cleared the ball upfield, but it went right to Ryan O'Dowd who was standing just inside the midfield line. O'Dowd one timed the ball over the head of the goalie who was furiously dashing back to his goal. The ball goes in the net, game over. We advanced to the district semifinals.

    • 1998 - Conestoga faced Neshaminy in the district semifinals. Neshaminy was ranked 20th in the nation and were a phenomenal team. Our team played solid defense thanks to unreal goaltending from Steve Whitaker who made at least 40 saves that night. We extended the game to overtime and barely missed scoring early in the second overtime. Finally, Neshaminy scored to win the game. The next day, Neshaminy won the district championship over Downingtown. Neshaminy was an amazing team but we almost pulled off the upset of the year that night.

    • 1999 - In the second game the Under 9 LMSC Hammerheads ever played, we played Gettysburg's B team in the Gettysburg tournament. I had to coach my U-13 team at the same time so I put assistant coach Ed Weiss in charge of the Hammerheads and told him to try to win by as many goals as possible so that we could get the maximum amount of bonus points. Prelminary games in this tournament were only 25 minutes long. When I saw Ed an hour later, I asked him what the score was. He told me it was 13-0, plus or minus a goal or two. Remember that this was only a 25 minute game. I asked him why he ran the score up so much. He replied by saying "You told me to." I thought that the tournament directors were going to throw us out of the tournament for that. We won the tournament easily. To this day, Ed and I still laugh about that, each blaming the other for allowing the score to get so out of hand.

    • 2000 - Early in their second season of play, the U-10 LMSC Hammerheads had still never lost a game to a team their age. We were losing 2-0 to some unknown team in the semifinals of the Gettysburg Tournament with less than a minute left in the game. Surely this would be our first ever loss. Suddenly, we scored two goals in that last minute of play to force overtime. Ten seconds into overtime, Greg Robbins scored to give us the victory. We would go on to the finals and easily win the tournament.

    • 2002 - The U-12 LMSC Hammerheads reached the championship game of the Gettysburg Tournament, playing up a year in the U-13 age group. Five minutes into the game, Matt Dilks, our goalie got a red card for intentionally handling the ball outside of the penalty area. We would have to play the rest of the game down a player and without our regular goalie. This is asking a lot of a team that is playing up a year. Colin Fleming went into goal and shut out North Union. We won the game 1-0 and won the tournament.

    • 2002 - Harriton vs. Chichester. We needed a win in the last game of the regular season to be league champions. We were losing 2-1 with a minute left when Steve Mayernick scored a beautiful goal from 20 yards out to force overtime. A minute into overtime, Dan Weiss scored to give us the league championship. Within the span of four minutes, Chichester went from winning their first ever league championship to being third place finishers.

    • 2003 - The LMSC Hammerheads defeated Lower Dauphin in the Region One championship game. A month before, we beat them in the state finals. This time, Wayne Maminski and Shaughn Gannon scored to give us a 2-0 win and give LMSC their first ever Region One championship.

    • 2004 - The Hammerheads repeated as state champions and were back at the regional tournament. In the semifinals we played our biggest rivals, Potomac (Maryland). It was a very tight game, Danny DiLullo scored early in the second half. After that, Potomac had several chances to score. With three minutes left, Alec Weiss made a beautiful move around a defender to get in on a breakaway. He scored to make it 2-0. The next day, we shutout the Rochester Rhinos to repeat as Region One champions. We playe five games at Regionals that week, all against state champions. We won each game by shutout.

    • 2006 - The last game I ever coached the Hammerheads was for the Under 15 national championship in Des Moines, Iowa. We had defeated Tulsa and the Chicago Magic to earn a spot in the national championship game. Our opponent was So Cal United who won the national championship the year before. With 100 degree weather and what felt like 100 percent humidity, So Cal easily defeated us. It was very sad for me, I had been with the team for eight years, but it was the last time I would coach them. I had already decided that the team had advanced to the point of needing a coach more prepared to deal with older players. On the flight back home, I was more sad about stepping down from the team than I was about losing the national championship. The boys were great friends of mine, as were many of the parents of the boys.

    • 2006 - Harriton had won the small school district championship and won their first state playoff game. In the state quarterfinals, we would face Southern Lehigh and play without our team MVP, Matt Krantz, who had a fractured foot. Our opponents were very tough and so was our defense. Without Krantz, we did not manage much offense. Regulation ended 0-0 and so did overtime so the game went to PK's. The Southern Lehigh goalie made three magnificant saves on our PK's and we were eliminated. I was very sad that game, partly because we lost, but mostly because it was the last time I would get to coach a bunch of great seniors who I had known since they were seven years old: Matt Krantz, Alex Perilstein, Austin Weinerman, Josh Broderson, Aaron Gross and others.

    • 2006 - The Under 12 LMSC Cannibals became the first LMSC team to win four consecutive Delco League division one championships when they defeated Montgomery United 1-0 on a Brett Campbell goal.

    • 2009 - The FC Delco Cannibals defeated Philly Soccer Club 4-1 in the Under 14 State championship game. Despite being such a good team, the Cannibals had never won a state title up to that point. It was a really easy win, much easier than our overtime win against PA Classics (from Lancaster) in the semifinals. Forwards Brett Campbell and Colin O'Neill could not be stopped that game.

    • 2009 - The Cannibals advanced to the semifinals of Regionals. Our opponent was the defending Region One champions, Dix Hills Thunder from Long Island. Over the years we had some great games with them. They were loaded with talent and the clear favorites to repeat as Regional champions. Brett Campbell gave us a 1-0 lead. Dix Hills mounted a lot of pressure, but could not crack our defense. With two minutes left in the game, we made our only defensive mistake of the game. Dix Hills tied the game up and forced overtime. They went up 2-1 early in the second half, but Danny Gonzalez tied it up for us, forcing a penalty shot shootout. The shootout went back and force. If our fifth shooter made his shot, we would win the game. He had the goalie beat but the ball went wide of the net. Finally, on the ninth round of PK's, the Dix Hills player made his shot and our guy missed. Our bid for a huge upset fell just a bit short.

    • 2010 - The FC Delco Cannibals defeated Harleysville 3-2 in overtime of the Under 15 state cup semifinals. Alex Dubow struck a beautiful ball into the upper corner of the net early in overtime. We had lost nine players that year to the FC Delco Academy team but still managed to repeat as state champions when we trounced Lower Dauphin 5-1 the next week.

    • 2010 - The Under 9 LMSC Sabertooth Rats won the state championship game 6-3 over rival Ukrainian Nationals. It was the first time any team of mine that young had won an outdoor state cup. They won the Delco League, indoor state cup and outdoor state cup all in the same year.

    • 2010 - The Under 10 LMSC Sabertooth Rats went down 3-0 in the Delco League championship game. In the last 15 minutes of the game, the Rats scored four goals to claim their second straight league championship.




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