Phelps School beats Salesianum in wild finish

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Two of the Philadelphia area's best boys soccer programs met on the grass home field of Phelps School on Saturday afternoon and they did not undersell the hefty billing.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>After a seesaw battle ended in Salesianum's favor last year in Wilmington, the two sides looked poised from the opening kick to play another classic even with a lot of turnover in both squads. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The hosts opened the scoring early when senior Georgios Kazantzioglou drilled a low free kick through traffic in the 15th minute. Both sides traded blows through the end of the half and despite threats going both ways the real magic of the day was saved for the final 10 minutes. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It started when sophomore Daniel Mathews got the equalizer in the 72nd minute for the Sallies and finished with Lions sophomore Raymond [player_tooltip player_id='175069' first='Junior' last='Diouf'] finding a late winner. Minutes earlier it looked like Sallies senior [player_tooltip player_id='9547' first='Sean' last='Duffy']'s equalizer would send the game to overtime (for a second straight year) and only a couple minutes before that Phelps thought they had found a winner through junior Alexis Bernard. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Several players on both sides stood out on the day but none perhaps as big as Phelps junior goalkeeper Anselme Poirer. The Canadian made a number of key stops to keep the Sallies at bay until the late flurry of goals. Sallies senior [player_tooltip player_id='9466' first='Aiden' last='Gonzalez'] was at the middle of many of those chances with his fancy footwork and tidy playmaking. Sallies senior attacker [player_tooltip player_id='9503' first='Gianluca' last='Marroni'] was responsible for several bright moments and against a different keeper may have bagged a couple goals. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Phelps School is a very different-looking team than the one that went toe to toe with Kiski School in the independent schools final (their only loss of the season). There's no clear consensus best player on the team like Gatorade Player of the Year Collins Oduro but there's talent across the field from the front to the back. Junior Noah Dooley, senior Lucca Saad and the aforementioned Kazatnzioglou, Poirer and Bernard were all standouts for the hosts. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Gonzalez, Marroni and Duffy along with senior defender John Barbato and junior attacker [player_tooltip player_id='9490' first='Dominic' last='Gennusa'] also stood out for the Sallies, which despite the loss are every bit as deserving of their national ranking as one of the top fall boys programs in the country. Two sophomores for Salesianum are worth keeping an eye on too in Matthews and forward Chase Esser. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->