Haverford School wins first PAISAA title in 10 years with 1-0 victory over Westtown School

A first half goal from Haven Hoilett off a long pass from Jose Hernandez held up as the lone goal in 1-0 win that led the Fords to their first Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association since 2015.

The goal 15 minutes into the match came off an interception from the sophomore Hernandez, who juked a defender and sent a long curling ball to the left flank to Hoilett on the run, who shook a defender and finished cleanly before running to a crowd of classmates gathered by the field in the bleachers at Arcadia University.

“We watched film and I knew that the back line wasn’t as fast as me and as soon as my teammate Jose got the ball I knew to start running,” Hoilett said. “Once I got the ball the rest is history.”

Hoilett’s star turn followed big performances in the Fords semifinal win over Perkiomen Valley and 1-0 win over rivals Episcopal Academy over the weekend.

“It feels great to be loved by them,” Hoilett said of his teammates and classmates celebrating. “It feels good to know that I caused all that happiness for my brothers.”

Westtown was missing one of their key attacking players in Manny Freeman to an injury picked up in their thrilling semifinal win over Episcopal Academy but were possessing and moving the ball well throughout, creating opportunities. The Fords, who came into the season with several question marks about their back line in front of junior goalkeeper Graham Costello, absorbed the pressure and put together one of their finest defensive performances of the season.

“We dominated the first half, playing our game sitting back trying to make them make decisions and capitalized on the transition,” Costello said. “Second half they had a lot of possession but we were playing our game and in the end we got the goal early and defended well.”

Assistant coach Homero Rodriguez, who took over the helm for the suspended head coach Keith Cappo, said he was pleased with how the boys capped a season filled with a lot of growth and development on and off the pitch.

“There are those moments where me and Cappo look at each other and we realize it’s going to be a work in progress,” Rodriguez said. “But first three games happen we got something going, next five games we’re getting into the swing of things and next thing you know we’re a 10-plus win team and the chemistry is there. The boys bought into the system and they said let’s do it for (Cappo), let’s do it for us and let’s do it for the legacy of the school. We wanted to finish this season with a great result considering we didn’t win the Inter-AC but this makes up for it.”

The Haverford marked their fourth PAISAA title dating back to 2013 and their first since Villanova-bound twins Conor Bradley and Shane Bradley and fellow D1 commit Connor Gregory helped lead the Fords to a 1-0 win over Malvern Prep in the final at The Proving Grounds.

The final also marked an end of the Kiski School reign as five-time champions dating back to 2019 when they beat Haverford 2-0 in the final at Immaculata University. While Penn Charter denied the Fords a four-peat in the Inter-Ac this season, bringing the PAISAA title back to the eastern part of the state for the first time since Springside Chestnut Hill won it in 2018 was an exclamation point on the season.

“The boys are extremely coachable, they buy in and they continuously got better as the year went on and that was all we asked them to do and it led to this,” Cappo said. “Inter-Acs are always important because it’s such a tough league but to get to the state championship against a team like Westtown who has top talent across the field is really special.”