Phantoms, Greenwood Take Bears to the Wire

According to the naysayers of the Pioneer Athletic Conference Final Four format, which pits the top two finishers in each division against each other, who would rather see the teams with the four best records square off regardless of divison, Phoenixville (6-7) and Boyertown (10-2-1) didn’t even belong on the same field on Tuesday night in the PAC-10 semi finals.

Tell that to the Bears, as the Liberty division number one seed had to scratch and claw, push and shove their way, barely escaping the clutches of the Phantoms, 2-1, scoring the game winner on a direct kick by senior Chad Craig, who had both Bears tallies, with 6:19 remaining in regulation.

From the time the Boyertown squad disembarked from the team bus and strolled into Washington Field an obvious swagger could be sensed and probably justly so. After all, the Bears defeated the Phantoms in their regular season meeting by a score of 7-1 in a game where the Bears racked up 11 fouls to the Phantoms' 1.

Phoenixville took notice and led with an outstanding effort by junior Ian Harrigan and seniors James Riggins and Ben Simons. At Washington Field, the hosts were bound and determined to give the Bears a rude welcome.

“They took it to us pretty good in our first game,” said Ben Simons, whose goal with 20:39 left in regulation tied the game at one and had Bears fans scrambling for a parachute. “We wanted to step up our play physically with them and I think we did a great job of that. I have scored goals before, but nothing like that in this type of game. To have everybody mob you and have the crowd going crazy was something pretty special.”

The Phantoms had a golden opportunity to tie the game with just over a minute to play as Phoenixville was awarded a direct kick, but Bears net minder Jacob Brumbach, helped by the maze of legs in front of him, was able to make a sliding stop narrowly preserving the visitors' victory, advancing the Bears into Thursday night’s PAC-10 championship game with Owen J. Roberts.

In what would turn out to be the turning point in the contest, Phantoms goal keeper Bryan Furr was injured as a Bears player appeared to deliberately slide into him while making his third save of the game. Phoenixville had done a great job in containing the Boyertown attackers.

Enter senior Dan Greenwood, who trotted onto the turf with no warm up and proceeded to put on his own highlight show, stopping eight of the nine shots he faced, making three diving saves that were of the point blank laser variety, fueling the Phantoms' inspired effort.

“I was nervous at first, I have come into games like that before, but nothing like this,” said Greenwood. “My guys played great in front of me and we showed tonight what kind of team we are. I think it helped that I got to face two shots right away. It really helped me get the nerves out.”

Greenwood continued to dazzle as he stretched out fully extended to deflect a shot from Craig and then was able to block a shot from senior Chris Chung that looked like it was destined to find the twine until Greenwood got a mitt on it.

“Dan did great job back there,” said Simons. “Seeing him make saves like that really inspired us and as a team we really fed off that emotion. It’s tough to lose a game like this. We could possibly make districts, but even if we don’t, to have this be our last game as seniors, where we took them down to the last minute, is a pretty good way to go out.”

Scoring

First half

35:58  Boyertown-   Craig unassisted

Second half

20:39  Phoenixville-  Simons from Harrigan

6:19   Boyertown-    Craig direct kick