Photo: Roman celebrates win over La Salle. Courtesy of Theresa O’Brien

Philadelphia Public League

The Public League semis took place on Thursday, Oct. 23. The first game featured second place Washington versus sixth seed Olney. Washington opened up a three goal lead, only to see Olney get two. Washington had a penalty called, but smashed the shot just wide. Check the video of it here.

In the second half Olney started with a burst of energy, but their forwards squandered the pressure with a number of offsides infractions. Washington then was in the ascendancy, pushing the ball at Olney. Olney’s keeper made this nice save on a free kick, but eventually Washington scored two more. Then, Olney star Hernando Villamil beat a few defenders to set up his left foot at the corner of the eighteen and made no mistake, sending a laser to the far upper ninety. It was all that Olney would manage though, and Washington were the 6-3 winners.

The second game saw undefeated Northeast battle with fourth place finisher Central. Northeast got the first chance of the game but could only smash the ball at Central keeper Vincent Roscioli, who calmly collected it. Then Central had a period of play in the offensive half, mitigated only by Northeast’s effective offsides trap. Central’s Octavian Tita took a freekick that bounced off Northeast goalie’s hands and back down into the goal, but the ball was correctly ruled to have bounced off the football uprights, for a corner.

Northeast had more time in their offensive half in the second period, but was unable to get past Central’s physical defense. In the first overtime, Central conceded a freekick just outside the eighteen. Adin Hernandes-Ferrera stepped up and hit a powerful, swerving shot that beat the wall and found its way into the net. With the 1-0 win, Northeast was bound for the finals with Washington.

The final is at Northeast on Tuesday, Oct. 28. They have been moved to 7 pm.

Philadelphia Catholic League

On Saturday, Oct. 25, the Catholic League had their semifinals at Archbishop Ryan High School. In the first game, fifth seed Roman Catholic took on top seed La Salle. La Salle struck ten minutes in, but Roman fought for sixty minutes after that and found an equalizer. In overtime Roman won with an improbable second overtime goal with Jarett Nast sending a forty-five yard pass into the box that beat the keeper on a long bounce. The 2-1 result sends Roman to the league final for the first time since 1997.

Archbishop Wood faced off with No. 2 seed Father Judge. Ryan Helmsley was able to shut out the Crusaders and Mike Smith scored both goals as the Bucks County school advanced past Judge. The Inquirer’s Mark Breen has a thorough write up of the results from the Catholic League semifinals.

The Catholic League final will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 6:30 pm at Archbishop Ryan.