Young upper-school soccer players should be seeing varsity playing time for Springside Chestnut Hill Academy this fall. The Blue Devils graduated nine seniors from their 2023 team, which placed fourth in the Inter-Ac League with a record of 4-5-1 and finished with an overall mark of 9-10-3.

SCH faculty member Brian Zalasky is back for his ninth year as head coach, and Mike Bray is entering his fourth season as assistant coach. Jeff McDonald joined the staff as a goalie coach last fall, and the most recent addition is Phil Martin, who has moved up to varsity after six seasons as a JV coach at the school.

After attending the long-running annual playday at Shipley School (a series of short scrimmages), the Blue Devils opened their season on August 26 with a 2-1 loss on the road against Philadelphia Catholic League North power Father Judge High School. The SCH lads then won by the same score against Germantown Friends, and last Wednesday they took away a 1-1 tie from a home match against Westtown School.

Westtown was the champion of the Friends Schools League last fall, and in the state’s independent schools tournament they lost by one goal in the semifinals to the eventual champ, Kiski School.

Last Wednesday the starter in goal for the Blue Devils was junior Cole Carberry, who has been on the varsity squad since eighth grade. As expected, senior quad-captains Michael Glennon, Willie Lamb, Andrew Laudenbach, and Anderson Swanger also started out the match against Westtown.

Rounding out the initial line-up were juniors Owen Hackford, J.R. Maher, and A.J. Trunfio, and sophomores Lev Eskin, Read Goodwin, and Warren Miller.

The other seniors on the varsity roster are Andrew Blum, Tommy Stratz, Sam Tonkon, and Alex Zeka, and the juniors are Pat Donohue, Michael Goff, and Chase Meyer. The sophomore reserves are goalkeeper Cornelius Stevenson, Beckett Chizmar, Gia D'Angelo, Christian DiMarco, Mike Iacovelli, and Micah Matthies, and the four freshmen to make the team are Jack Balsamo, Jack Kryzwicki, Braeden McAneny, and Sammy Link.

The Devils performed well against a strong Westtown side, with Carberry coming up with some nice saves to deny the Moose shooters for much of the match.

After the teams reached a 0-0 standoff at halftime, it was Springside Chestnut Hill that scored first. On an outside shot from the right, the ball was knocked down and rolled loose in front of the cage. After touches by several players, Laudenbach (who has committed to Dickinson College) closed in from the left post to punch the ball in.

The Blue Devils were hoping to ride that goal to a narrow victory, but Westtown evened things up later in the second half. Carberry stopped the initial charge by the Moose from the left wing, but in a similar scenario to the SCH scoring play, the loose ball was eventually booted in by one of the visitors. No overtime was played.

At week's end, the SCH booters pushed their record into winning territory (2-1-1) with a 5-0 victory over Blair Academy of the Mid-Atlantic Prep League. Laudenbach logged a hat trick, Glennon registered a goal and two assists, and Miller converted a free kick for the other goal.