CHA soccer sinks Cheltenham, 2-0

by TOM UTESCHER

He wished his Blue Devils could've cashed in on more of their scoring chances, but aside from that Chestnut Hill Academy soccer coach Bob DiBenedetto had little to complain about last Saturday as his club posted a 2-0 Homecoming Day victory over visiting Cheltenham High School.

Outshooting the Panthers 23-6, the Devils improved their record to 7-2 thanks to goals by seniors Andrew Ferry and Pat Spanninger. Junior goalkeeper Taylor Rooke made three saves to record the shutout.

Winner of the Keystone Tournament in central Pennsylvania the weekend before, CHA ran its win streak to four games in a row with last Saturday's result, so team morale should be high as the local squad launches into the Inter-Ac League schedule this week.

In the Cheltenham contest the endeavors of the two teams were almost overshadowed by the antics of a powertripping ref who tossed yellow cards like confetti. With just under 15 minutes remaining in the first half, he even banished a portion of the home crowd from the sideline for "inappropriate comments." Afterwards, adult earwitnesses said that whatever remarks were made were relatively innocuous and free of profanity.

At the point the crowd was reprimanded, CHA already held a 1-0 lead. Following near misses by Ferry and Steph Chareczko, Ferry drove through the middle of the box and delivered a goal from close range with 18:30 elapsed. A few minutes later Cheltenham penetrated across the CHA 18 and gave the home fans a fright, but Rooke knocked down one shot and Chelsey Roebuck blocked another, and then Sam Greenwood cleared the loose ball out of the box.

Entering the second half with a 1-0 edge, CHA logged even more ball possession than in the first frame, with Frank Spada making a number of runs up the right wing. Chestnut Hill nailed the final score on the board with 32:31 remaining. Chareczko served the ball into the left side of the box, where Spanninger settled it, then turned and shot the insurance goal.

In the last seven minutes a direct kick for Cheltenham bounced back off of CHA's wall of defenders, and a strong outside shot by the Panthers also failed to break the shutout as it sailed wide of the left post. Anton Ladden was the author of the Panthers' best scoring attempts in the match, and goaltender Jim Meyers kept things close on the scoreboard with a total of ten saves.

This Friday at 3:45 Chestnut Hill will host defending Inter-Ac League champion Germantown Academy.