Owen J. Roberts upsets Pennridge

Before the opening kickoff, before the first whistle sounded, Owen J. Roberts girls' soccer coach Joe Margusity turned around and said, "This one is a battle between the freshmen and the sophomores."

The 28th-seeded Wildcats' starting lineup featured six freshmen, and their opponent, host Pennridge, started eight sophomores.

A sophomore struck first for the fifth-seeded Rams, but it was a freshman who helped Owen J. Roberts upset the top-ranked team in Southeastern Pennsylvania, 2-1, Thursday in the first round of the District 1 Class AAA playoffs.

Freshman forward Mahogany Willis scored two goals for Roberts (11-7-2) in a five-minute span of the second half, striking two balls low to a corner of the net.

"When I scored the second goal, I thought, 'Oh, man, I just scored twice in districts and I'm a freshman,' " Willis said.

Willis netted her first goal with 14 minutes remaining, and the second with just nine minutes left.

"Most people think it would be hard to play with freshmen, but they picked it up so quickly," Wildcats junior midfielder Emilie Kupsov said. "It's easy to lead them. It is like they are all juniors."

Pennridge (14-2-3) dominated possession early and registered shot after shot on Wildcats keeper Sarah Mills. But the senior played aggressively, earning 10 saves in a big-time performance.

It was the second game in as many days for Owen J. Roberts, as the Wildcats had to compete in a play-in game for the final spot in the tournament Wednesday.

"I didn't think we deserved to be [seeded 28th], and we just put that to our advantage and got angry," Kupsov said.

"We thought, 'You know what? We are better than these teams, and we are just going to come out as hard as we can and show them we shouldn't have been ranked 29th.' "

As the happy chants and the laughter overwhelmed the turf field at Pennridge, the anger was momentarily forgotten.

It was time to celebrate.

Owen J. Roberts 0 2 – 2

Pennridge 1 0 – 1

Goals: OJR-Mahogany Willis 2; P-Olivia Fernandez.

Saves: OJR-Sarah Mills 10; P-Kaitlyn Moran 3.