GLASGOW – Charter of Wilmington had an easy time against Newark in the regular-season finale for both teams last week.
The Yellowjackets made it much, much tougher in the opening round of the DIAA Division I Boys Soccer Tournament on Saturday night.
Newark pushed the Force into overtime before Patrick O’Connor scored to end a wild scramble near the end of the first extra period. The 1-0 victory sent Charter into the semifinals, and brought a huge sigh of relief from the Force fans at Caravel’s Bob Peoples Stadium.
“It was just a battle. And sometimes you have to get a goal like that to win a game like this,” Charter coach Jon Gillespie said. “It was a tough one.”
The third-seeded Force (13-2-1) advanced to meet second-seeded Appoquinimink on Wednesday, at a site and time to be announced. Sixth-seeded Newark put up a valiant fight and finished its season at 10-3-3.
The Force rolled past Newark 4-0 at home on Nov. 3. But on paper, that one was actually closer than this one. Charter only outshot the Yellowjackets 11-10 in the first meeting. On this night, the Force had a 14-1 advantage in shots.
“The score didn’t show how well they did last week,” O’Connor said of Newark. “They’re a really good team. We had trouble putting shots in the back of the net in this game. We had a few chances that we should have put away.”
It finally ended in the 89th minute. Kevin Eriksen sent a corner kick into the box, and four players – two from Charter, two from Newark – got a head on it. When the ball came down, it was on O’Connor’s foot. He blasted it in from point-blank range to set off the Charter celebration.
“Normally I’m taking the corners. I saw Kevin wave me off and I was like, ‘Oh, I guess he’s thinking of something,’” O’Connor said. “The ball bounced around in the box. Mike Mattamira got up. For such a small guy, he can really jump. The ball just fell to me, and I just tried to kick it as hard as I could.”
The Yellowjackets couldn’t generate much offense, but their back line of Benjamin Pearl, Patrick McGay, Daniel Addison and Anthony Gomez kept the Force from punching through in both 40-minute halves.
“I think they played the same way [as last week], but they defended extremely well,” Gillespie said. “We had a hard time really breaking down what they had. The game was different. Sometimes you have to gut these games out, and we did.”
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ.
Charter School of Wilmington senior Eamon O’Connor shoots at goal in the first half against Newark at Bob Peoples Stadium Saturday.
Charter School of Wilmington celebrates after a 1-0 overtime win against Newark in the first round of the DIAA soccer tournament at Bob Peoples Stadium Saturday.
The ball gets past Newark goalkeeper Zachary Mullin to give Charter School of Wilmington a 1-0 win in overtime in the first round of the DIAA state soccer tournament.
