East Wins Coaches Cup Boys' Title

When the Cherry Hill East boys’ soccer team was able to get past Cherokee on penalty kicks despite a miss by Andrew Adler, the relieved Cougars’ forward promised his team that he would make up for his miss in a big way.

And did he ever.

Adler scored three minutes into Saturday afternoon’s South Jersey Coach Cup final and the Cougars' defense made it hold up in a 1-0 victory over Moorestown. The victory capped an amazing run by East, which got wins over defending champion Cherokee, Kingsway and Lenape, as a No. 14 seed.

Adler’s goal was set up by Jake Faford, who won a ball away from the Moorestown goalie and found Alder open in front of the net.

“Jake had a strange collision with the goalie and I was in the right spot,” explained Adler. “I just tapped it in. It felt amazing, especially after the Cherokee game where I missed a PK. I told my teammates I would make up for it and get it back and to do it that quickly just felt amazing.”

East dominated the midfield play in the first half, but Moorestown picked up the intensity over the final 40 minutes, sending ball after ball into the 18 only to have it sent right back out.

“That the best defensive performance I have seen in a high school game in my life,” Adler said. “The entire back four did not make a mistake. Their game was just to jam it in there and get a loose ball and our defense did not allow it.”

The biggest defensive play of the game came with seven minutes into the second half, when Moorestown’s Xavier Austin slid an shot past East keeper Steven Oberlander only to see it cleared out on the goal line by defender Matt Muench. The play ignited the East crowd and cleaned up the only time Oberlander, who made 15 saves, was beat.

“I was just standing on the line and I didn’t even see the ball,” Muench said. “Then, out of nowhere, it comes rolling towards me and I was just thinking ‘Get it the (heck) out of there.’”

East nearly pushed the lead to 2-0, three minutes earlier when Moorestown goalie Adam Goldstein flubbed an attempted clear that went right to Ethan Messinger, but Messinger’s shot towards the empty net went just wide.

Moorestown created a few more scoring opportunities off long throws and corner kicks, but the Cougars held their ground, and as a result, got to hold the title.

“It feels great,” said East coach Karl Moehlmann, who is in his 24^th and final season with the team. “It wasn’t the prettiest game, but key players came up (big) and the goalie came up with saves again. Overall, they played hard and the defense held up.”

“It’s been a long time since we won this and a long time since we really won anything,” said Muench. “To do it on the last season for our coach is unreal.”

The win gives East incredible momentum heading into the Group 4 playoffs. The Cougars will be a No. 13 seed, but as they have already shown, seeding means little to them.

“We don’t want to get to confident or anything, but we hope to basically do the same thing we did in the Coaches Cup,” Muench said. “The thing is, this time we won’t be the underdog in every match. Teams will know that they are going to have to really play well to beat us.”