PENNSBURG – Senior goalkeeper Emma Houchin and the Nazareth defense absorbed relentless pressure and kept District 1 power Central Bucks South off the scoreboard for over 100 minutes in Saturday afternoon’s PIAA 4A girls soccer quarterfinal contest at Upper Perkiomen High School.
The District 11 champions needed to hold it together for only four more minutes before Tessa Hughes delivered a perfect corner kick that Monika Daly headed home with 3:50 remaining in double overtime to give the Titans a 1-0 win over the Blue Eagles and move on to the state semifinal.
“We practice corner kicks a lot, so me and Lana [Peev], we always just try to make sure we’re at the spot. Tessa [Hughes] does a really good job hitting at the same spot every time,” Daly said. “Thank God Tessa just kept drilling the ball, and it just came right to us. I’m just glad we capitalized.”
That’s what the Titans failed to do for the entirety of Saturday’s game, although a heroic performance by Houchin was partially to blame.
The All-EPC first-team goalkeeper lived up to her status as the league’s top keeper with 11 saves on the day that seemed to have increasing difficulty as the game went on. Houchin extended for her first save of the game in the first 15 minutes with a deflection off the crossbar before corralling the loose ball.
She followed it up with two incredible breakaway saves in the final 10 minutes of the second half, both to deny Riley Karpinski, and preserve the 0-0 deadlock.
“During the beginning of the game, you need to make a couple saves to get your confidence up,” Houchin said. “Once I kept making saves, my confidence went up, but it allowed me to kind of not feel as nervous and become more focused.”
That was never more true than when there was just under 10 minutes left on the clock in the first overtime and Houchin defended a cross, fell to the ground, quickly pulled herself up and sprinted across the goalline to make a diving save on what looked like an empty net for the Titans.
None of the other 21 players on the field or the fans in the crowded bleachers could believe that the senior stood tall once again to keep the game going.
“I saw there was a girl open, and I knew that if I didn’t get there, there was a chance she could have scored, so I got back up quickly and ran across hoping that I would get a hand on it,” Houchin said.
Nazareth coach Ziggy Lewis could only laugh in disbelief and smile when asked to reflect on his goalkeeper’s sensational final game.
“That’s the reason why she’s our captain. Because the girls know that we have somebody who we can trust,” Lewis said. “As a team, we’re not happy that we gave her that many shots, but overall, we’re happy that today was her best game.
“Because, today, she kept us in the game, and I was very happy about that. She was amazing today.”
Still, even after the Blue Eagles settled into the game and created a few chances early in the second half, the Titans continued to press toward the go-ahead goal. Nearly all of the 15-minute first overtime was spent in Nazareth’s defensive end with clearances only going as far as the next Central Bucks South player who would bring it down and deliver it back into the box.
That continued into the second overtime as Daly finally broke the deadlock to provide a well-deserved goal that abruptly ended the best season in the history of Nazareth girls soccer.
“As a coach, I wish I could have done more to figure out where I could adjust things,” Lewis said. “But, they’re one hell of a team. They have individual players with skills that could change the dynamic of a game.”
The Blue Eagles finish the season with a 23-2-1 record, an EPC runner-up finish and the first district championship in 15 years. Lewis will lose nine seniors to graduation but has every reason to believe the future is bright with a handful of stars returning to continue what this 2025 team started.
All he was left with after a hard-fought quarterfinal loss was pride for what this team was able to do and how they’ll be remembered in the storied history of Nazareth girls soccer.
“I told the girls, ‘Let’s not take this one for granted,’ because this is something special. And I’m happy that I’m the coach. I’m happy that this group of seniors could say, ‘In my four years, I was able to win a district championship,’ and I was happy that they were able to experience that,” Lewis said. “[It was] one hell of a season. One hell of a ride. Let’s be proud. Let’s leave this field with our heads held high because we accomplished things that not many people believed we could at the start of the season.
“I was happy to be the coach because we had one hell of a ride this year.”
Derek Bast is a freelance sports writer who can be found on Twitter/X at @derek_bast or reached by email at derekbast11@gmail.com.
