Career game for Houlihan leads Knights past Indians

Carter Houlihan dribbles through the Souderton defenders. He finished with 4 goals.

“Great second half.  We started finally getting the ball and connecting a little bit and finding Carter.  Tremendous effort and tremendous performance by Carter…he’s a special player,” Coach Paul Duddy said after the Knights win.

The North Penn Knights (2-0) beat the rival Souderton Indians (1-1) 5-1 after only putting one goal on the board in the first half.  Then Carter Houlihan took over the second half with 4 goals in a dominating performance.

“We had a talk at halftime. We weren’t playing up to par.  We weren’t playing like ourselves.  Coach got us fired up and we all came out.  My teammates played some wonderful balls in to me and I did the rest,” Houlihan said.

Prasham Jobanputra
Jamie Stewart’s goal with 24:01 left in the first half.

The first goal was the only North Penn goal that wasn’t scored by Houlihan, as it came with 24:01 left in the first.  Jamie Stewart sent a free kick in to the back of the net and gave the Knights the 1-0 advantage.  But, with 16:44 left in the half, Souderton’s Thomas Smith got an easy goal off a penalty kick to even the score with 16:44 left in the half and the score remained that way for the rest of the half.

With 25:27 left in the second half, Souderton’s goalie, Riley Finger, fell trying to get the ball off a save but fell and Houlihan poked the ball into the net to take a 2-1 lead.  Houlihan then got another goal with 19:34 left in the half.  The Knights had a free kick with 18:59 left and before the defense could set up, Houlihan kicked the ball and scored a long-range goal.  Finally, with 16:18 left in the second half, Ryan Stewart sent a deep pass to Houlihan and the only defender between Houlihan and the net was the goalie.  Houlihan won the battle for the ball as the goalie fell and Houlihan finished it off with his 4th goal of the afternoon.

The Knights are back in action Saturday at Lansdale Catholic for a noon time game with the Crusaders.

“Always a tough game, it’s the neighborhood team and it’s just always a really good game and always a tight game,” Coach Duddy said.