Episcopal Academy falls short in bid to dethrone Kiski School

For nearly an hour, it looked like Episcopal Academy might just have a chance to dethrone Kiski School in Tuesday’s PAISAA boys soccer final at Arcadia University. The Churchmen were turning in a gritty performance, using their athleticism, strength and work ethic to limit a Kiski attack that had outscored opponents 20-0 in three prior playoff games.

But a moment of brilliance from Santiago Giraldo Valencia to set up Filippo Gagliardi in the box and a goal from Gagliardi capitalizing from sloppy play in the box 17 minutes later would prove to be all the goals Kiski needed to win their fifth straight title.

“I’m really proud of this group; we’ve been talking all year that this is a very special group,” Episcopal coach Zach Ward said. “They worked very, very hard to get here and we were excited to compete against Kiski, against the best team in the state.”

Episcopal came into the PAISAA tournament as a six seed but upset third seeded Penn Charter and narrowly defeated 7th seed Westtown to get to Tuesday night’s final.

“We always looked at PAISAA as bonus soccer,” Ward said. “We get another day of training, another game for our seniors. We definitely looked at is an exciting opportunity and now see that it’s something we can continue to strive to do.”

Kiski was without star forward and Pitt committ Mamadou Tall in the match, which changed the way they played but the depth of talent in the group showed in how they were able to adjust and capitalize on their chances when they did come.

“Credit to the opponent, I knew they were going to be athletic and hard working and basically run into a wall for each other and their coach,” said Kiski School head coach Jonty Loukes. “As the cliche goes we were able to weather the storm in the first half and produce the kind of soccer we know we are capable of in the second half.”

Along with Episcopal Academy, Haverford School, Germantown Academy and Phelps School (twice) have all been on the wrong end of the scorelines of the last five finals against Kiski, which has made the four-plus hour journey to the Philadelphia area for each of their five straight title wins.

“We go into every season with the same goal in mind; we always want to win the state championship,” Loukes said. “As a program, it makes me proud that we continue to produce year after year, that every year we have young men step up and know exactly what it takes to win.”