Youth/High School Soccer
Delco Christian’s quest for another state title ends in overtime heartbreak
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In a game with brothers on both side of the ball it was the younger brother for Bentworth who had the final say on the PIAA Class A boys soccer final on Saturday night at Northeastern High School.
Adam Moessner picked off an errant back pass off a ball sent in by older brother Ryan Moessner and put the ball past DC goalkeeper Carter Dill to break a scoreless game four minutes into overtime and win Bentworth’s first ever state championship. Bentworth lost in the final a year ago and DC was looking for their second title in three years.
“It’s a tough way to end but it happens in soccer,” said Dill, who made a big stop to deny Adam Moessner’s would-be winner in regulation. “All it takes is three seconds for them to score, it happens fast, but we need to bounce back from it.”
Dill was a freshman on the team when they won their first state title in 2023 and his older brother Cody Dill was a captain. Senior Jonas Ma and junior Justin Ma both started for the Knights for a program that similarly to Bentworth has had a number of brothers come through over the years.
“Ryan and Adam have just been animals all year long,” said Bentworth head coach Nick Malarbi. “Our program has been built on brothers as well. We’ve graduated a lot of those brothers and now their younger brothers are winning even more than them.”
Bentworth, a Pittsburgh area school, completed a 25-0 season with the win over a DC team that won their first ever District 1 championship. It’s a team too that returns all but four starters next season.
“It’s hard to believe it in the moment, but you can’t let just the final outcome of the last game characterize the whole season,” Delco Christian head coach Rob Atkins said. “There was so much to be proud of over the season, so so much growth, so much goodness that we were able to experience just in being able to play with each other and have relationships with each other and love each other.”
