Eagles land their title

Pennsville swamps Salem 7-1 to clinch its first boys soccer division title in 32 years and fourth all-time; set sights on a home playoff game

BOYS SOCCER
Woodstown 1, Pitman 1
Schalick 4, Penns Grove 0
Pennsville 7, Salem 1
Gloucester Catholic 6, Salem Tech 4

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – It isn’t often Pennsville coach Derek Foglein dresses up in a suit coat and tie for a soccer game, so it had to be a pretty special occasion for him to put on the ritz Monday night.

Usually, he reserves the sartorial splendor for the Foglein Bowl, the annual game between the Eagles and whatever team Foglein’s brother is coaching at the time. Well, the Foglein Bowl is on hold for the time being, so there had to be something else afoot.

Does the prospect of winning your first division championship in 32 years count?

The Eagles don’t have many soccer banners in the gym rafters, but they earned the right to raise another one in an historic Senior Night when they routed Salem 7-1 under the lights of Lou D’Angelo Stadium to win their first Tri-County Classic Division championship since 1993 and just the fourth all-time.

“Today in the circle before we started warmups I said I put on a shirt and tie for two reasons,” Foglein said. “No. 1, to look good for the seniors and No. 2 because we need to be professionals and we need to go to work. They went to work.

“Our seniors got a lot of joy and we get a lot of joy as a team because we did something that hasn’t been done in a long, long time and it feels really good. It was just a really positive night for soccer in Pennsville.”

It had been so long, Foglein wasn’t even born the last time they did it. Assistant coach Joe Mecholsky was a senior on the 1991 team that won it before that.

Luckily, the players didn’t mess up the coach’s outfit, sparing him the traditional water bucket salute as they celebrated the title.

“I asked him in school today because he was looking all spiffy is is the full tuxedo and tie and dress shoes coming out for the game tonight,” senior stopper Steve Fatcher said. “He says we’ll see. So he pulls up and says I have two reasons to be going fancy, Senior Night and to win the division for the first time in 32 years. It got us real hyped up. It was what we needed, especially after the rough week we had.”

The Eagles cut their run to the title close. They were on the cusp of clinching after beating Wildwood 1-0, but the celebration kept getting delayed as they lost to Clayton and then tied Gloucester Catholic. Luckily, all they had to do was get past the winless Rams to claim the crown.

“I will say that that was not the way we intended to finish the season,” Foglein said. “This was a night-and-day performance from what I’d seen from them over the last two games and the performance that we needed to go after Collingswood on Wednesday, because that’s going to be an enormous game to determine if we get a home playoff game or not.”

They haven’t had a home game in the playoffs since the 2020 semifinals and haven’t had a first-round home game since 2017. They haven’t won a tournament game since 2014.

All four field-position seniors scored goals for the Eagles – and in the first 15 minutes of the match. Their fifth senior, goalkeeper Coen Rinnier, came within a penalty kick near the end of the 60-minute game of recording the shutout.

Trevor Hann got them on the board with his second career goal and first since 2023 on a breakaway in the seventh minute. Sophomore J.P. Laughrey made it 2-0 two minutes later, followed in quick succession by seniors Edwin Castaneda-Sanchez, (his career first), Fatcher and Danny Bunay Coronel.

“It’s felt amazing,” Hann said. “Scoring on my Senior Night, winning the division title for the first time in more than 30 years, I feel amazing. I never felt like this before. It feels amazing.”

Freshman Anthony Michaca made it 6-0 before halftime and set the stage for a 60-minute finish. Guy Quintanilha got the Rams inside the mercy threshold with a PK 3:49 before the deadline, but freshman Jhonny Medina made it a six-goal game again with his first career goal in the 59^th minute .

Sixty seconds later, the celebration began.

“Coach Foglein wasn’t even born when that (last) happened,” Rinnier said. “Coach Joe was one of the last to do it. We’ve had him just cheering us on the whole way. He still remembers his whole team when he won and I think it’s going to be the same thing for us. He talks about how special it is and we’re going to see how special it is.”