North ended the first half of its regular season by travelling to Cardinal O'Hara in Delaware County. O'Hara was in quest for its first victory in the new aligned Catholic League and North tried to remain unbeaten.
For those of you who have not been to O'Hara, it is a campus very similar to Archbishop Ryan in Northeast Philadelphia. The real main difference is the quality of its field. Ryan is the gold standard in terms of field, environment and field condition. O'Hara on the other hand might be the tin standard. Its field certainly had enough length, but it is narrow and its field conditions are akin to those of Department of Recreation fields. Did I mention that the weather was outstanding again?
North played well enough to come away with a 2-1 victory. In the first half, Sr. midfielder, Carl Essenthier slotted a perfect pass to Bridesburg Sophomore Tyler Wolfinger running into the penalty area on the left side. Tyler opened his hips and curled a ball into the far corner to open the scoring. The half ended North 1, O'Hara 0.
The play in the second half was pretty sloppy. Bouncing balls and miskicks seemed to dominate the play. Anytime North was able to mount an attack, O'Hara's defenders were able to clear the ball pretty effectively. Midway through the final half, Carl Essenthier delivered a long pass onto the streaking path of Sr. Mike Gredzlik who beat the keeper to make the score 2-0 in North's favor. From this point on, the game was more of a slugfest with each side clearing balls from its defensive zone. With a few minutes to play, O'Hara capitalized on a defensive lapse by North and scored its lone goal with about 3 minutes to go. Final score, North 2 and O'Hara 1.
FACES IN THE CROWD
Do you know this man??????? You know that old saying, "North Guys are Everywhere," here again is another example. Before our trip to O'Hara, North's AD, Tom Kaiser gets a phone call from a Jim Lynch. Jim sees that North is playing O'Hara. Just so happens that Jim's dad is a graduate of North, from the Class of 1938! Jim's dad is Ray Lynch. He grew up at Front and Tioga and is from St. Hugh Parish. Ray has lived in Springfield (Delco) for the past 40 years. He has been inducted into 2 Soccer Hall of Fames in Delaware County. At the game, Ray had his picture taken with Coaches: Jerry Brindisi and Dennis Drumm (below) and with the captains of this years team: John McCarthy, Carl Essenthier, Pat Greer and Mark Pugliese.
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