QUAKERTOWN – If you’re a fan of goals and offense, Saturday’s PIAA Class 4A boys soccer quarterfinal between District 1 champion Haverford and District 11 champ Parkland was the game for you.

“Never, not in my wildest dreams, would I have thought we’d score four goals against that team,” Parkland coach Scott Mang said, smiling.

Well, it took all four for Mang’s Trojans to escape with an exciting, wild 4-3 win in the opener of a soccer doubleheader on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon at Quakertown Community High School’s Alumni Field.

Parkland (23-1-1) moves on to Tuesday’s state semifinals to meet another District 1 team in West Chester Henderson (21-3-1).

Senior Kerem Adali’s strike with 28:04 remaining and senior Ryan Bender’s header with 18:42 left broke a 2-2 halftime tie and the Trojans survived a frenzied attack from Haverford over the final 10 minutes of action.

“It was crazy out there today,” said Bender, who contributed a goal and an assist. “To score on them and them to score on us, back-and-forth. It was a battle all the way until the end. That’s our team, though. We stay aggressive whatever the score is and today we got the better of them.”

Haverford (19-3-2) outplayed Parkland through most of the opening 40 minutes but the Trojans equalized as Edward Curelar’s goal with 2:51 left before intermission tied the score at 2.

The Trojans, who scored first on Anthony Bautista’s goal 12 minutes into play, reclaimed the advantage when Talmage Pollard went to work and set up Adali on an effort that drew rave reviews from Mang.

“Pollard got the ball on the outside, he hunted that kid down, then beat two or three guys and angled the ball back to Kerem,” Mang said. “Kerem had that clinical finish. That was just his fourth this season – he does the dirty work – but it was his second big one. He also scored in the District 11 final against Emmaus.”

“I’ve got to give the credit to Tal,” Adali said, “because he played me a ball very unselfishly and I just put it in.”

Parkland added to its advantage on a set piece as Alex Hurwitz lofted a perfect angled ball to Bender, who leapt high into the air to head the ball by Haverford goalkeeper Sean Grien.

“We practice those quite a bit,” said Bender, whose goal was his 11th this season. “I actually scored in the game previous to this on the exact same thing. We have some chemistry there. Alex put it on a platter and I made a good connection.

“You never want to celebrate too early but it did feel good to go up by two.”

Coach Mike Klemens’ Haverford club turned up the pressure from there and closed within one at the nine-minute mark thanks to a goal by John Snopkowski.

Parkland, however, stiffened on the back end and the Trojans denied a tying tally to move within 80 minutes of another trip to the state final.

“You’re usually looking a 2-1 or 1-1 in the state games,” said Mang, who is now 91-10-2 in his fourth season at Parkland. “Last year it was PKs all the way through states. I thought it was a great game today.

“It’s so hard to even get out of District 11 with teams like Emmaus and Freedom and Northampton. States are actually relaxing and it’s so much fun.”

To Mang’s point, Parkland suffered its lone loss this season to Freedom, 1-0, in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference semifinals. The Trojans then trailed Freedom 1-0 late in the district semifinals before two quick goals allowed them to survive and advance.

Now, they have another tough 80 minutes (or more) ahead in Tuesday’s state semifinals. West Chester Henderson lost to Haverford in PKs in the District 1 semifinals but prevailed in PKs in Saturday’s PIAA quarterfinal vs. Emmaus.

Adali remains confident Parkland can again survive and advance.

“We’re going to go to the finals and hopefully win,” the senior midfielder said. “Last year hurt. We want it. We want it bad.”

PIAA CLASS 4A BOYS SOCCER QUARTERFINALS

PARKLAND 4, HAVERFORD 3

Parkland 2 2 – 4Haverford 2 1 – 3

Parkland – Goals: Anthony Bautista, Edward Curelar, Kerem Adali, Ryan Bender. Assists: Alex Hurwitz 2, Talmage Pollard, Bender. SOG: 8. Corners: 6. Saves: Matthew Feiller 5.Haverford – Goals: Nathan Mulhern, Eamon Brennan, John Snopkowski. Assist: Patrick Flynn. SOG: 8. Corners: 5. Saves: Sean Grein 4.

Michael Blouse is a freelance writer.

https://www.mcall.com/2025/11/08/piaa-4a-boys-soccer-parkland-outlasts-haverford/