CB Feast: Central Bucks East grabs first PIAA state title with 7-0 victory over rival South

An early goal off a long free kick opened the floodgates for Central Bucks East and with their dynamic attack clicking on all cylinders they defeated rivals Central Bucks South 7-0 to capture the school’s first PIAA state title in girls soccer on Friday afternoon at Northeastern High School in Manchester.

Meeting for the fourth time this season, CB East avenged a 1-0 district quarterfinal loss three weeks ago with the most lopsided PIAA girls soccer final since Fairfield beat Shady Side 9-4 in the 2016 Class A girls final.

Keira Sleicher started the goal parade with a free kick from 45 yards out that South junior goalkeeper Morgan Sowash jumped and got a hand to but was unable to keep out of the net. Minutes later Sleicher won a foot race to a ball played into the box by Taylor Roumy after she slid in and won the ball and Sleicher put her shot on the run past a sliding Sowash. Roumy added a second before halftime with a cutback in the box and a left-footed shot from an angle in the box that hit the right post and went in.

Five minutes into the second half, junior Mia Forney got on the scoresheet when she collected a Sleicher flick off a throw-in, drove down the left flank, beat two defenders and cut back across to her right and buried a low shot into the bottom left of the goal. A couple minutes later, Sleicher gathered a throw-in on the right flank, dribbled through two defenders and calmly finished past an on-rushing Sowash to complete her hat trick and stretch the score to 6-0.

Seconds later Sleicher was on the run with the ball again and played Quinn Reilly in with a pass to her left. Reilly collided with Sowash but the ball trickled into the goal. Reilly left the match with an injury on the play and was carried on a teammate’s back when the players ran out to celebrate after the full time buzzer sounded.

“Coming into this game, I knew it was going to take all of us playing 110 percent,” Sleicher said post-game. “It was everything I could have dreamed.”

Sleicher is part of an immensely talented junior class of players who were in second grade the last time CB East played in a state final. CB East girls lost that match at Hersheypark Stadium but the boys team followed it up with a state final win that night. A decade later, the heroics of junior attackers Sleicher, Forney and Roumy left little doubt who would be lifting the trophy in 2025.

“CB South is an incredible team, and from the few games that we’ve played them, they’ve really put us on the back foot,” said CB East head coach Jake Nesteruk. “It was a point of emphasis for our group that if we started strong and we kept the momentum and we stayed true to our principles, we thought we could get a couple more chances. And that’s exactly what happened. Credit to this group for getting us going early and just gave us the confidence we needed to go through that first half.”

While the junior class will be poised for a repeat run next year, senior goalkeeper Aralynn Patterson along with starting senior defenders Paige Dougherty and Skylar Lipp were instrumental in their final high school game slowing a CB South attack with dynamic playmakers of their own.

“It feels like a fairy tale ending,” Patterson said. “Going through this program for four years. I’ve been waiting for this moment and I wouldn’t want to end it any other way.”

Patterson credited the “extreme focus” of the team, which had winning a state final as their goal from the first day of training camp, as a key recipe for their success. There were bumps along the way – they lost to CB South in the regular season and district quarterfinal and needed to beat Conestoga and Spring-Ford in playbacks to earn the fifth spot from District 1 in the state tournament. Patterson had clean sheets in five of their last six games.

“It’s been a standard the past five years that we make it to states, and we’ve worked so hard all season to get here,” said Patterson. “I’m blessed to have been able to play with the players on this team. They’re all amazing and there’s nothing but positivity going forward. I feel they can do the same thing next year.”