Youth/High School Soccer
Delco Christian wins District 1 double, boys and girls teams advance to states
Delco Christian soccer is having a moment.
Both their girls and boys teams swept a doubleheader of the PIAA District 1 Class A finals Tuesday night at Upper Dublin High School and the girls followed it up with a lopsided victory over MaST II on Thursday to book their first PIAA state tournament berth since 2010.
Tuesday night started with a come-from-behind win for the girls to snatch the crown from defending state champions Faith Christian and ended with both teams posing in the net for a combined team photo with their newly acquired hardware after the boys team defeated Dock Mennonite 1-0 to win their second straight District 1 crown.
“The girls have been playing such great soccer all year so we’re just so proud of them and all that (Andy Young) has accomplished with them,” boys head coach Rob Atkins said after his team’s 1-0 win. “It’s really special to be on the same site and both get a win.”
Young, in his second year as head coach of the girls team, was able to celebrate Tuesday’s double both as a coach and a parent. He has two daughters on the girls team and a son on the boys team.
“It’s really special,” Andy Young said. “The boys achieved a level of success before the girls did but the girls program has been building and building. This is only my second season so I’m certainly standing on the shoulders of Rob Irias (previous head coach) and others that have been here before me.”
Matteo DeBellis’ game-winner and cartwheel/back flip celebration in the boys final. https://t.co/EYneIwBBUi
— Philadelphia Soccer Now (@phlsoccernow) November 6, 2026
The evening started with Faith Christian grabbing a lead through Norah Heilman as the sun was setting but Arden Silver was able to pull the Knights back into the game doing what she has done all season – her first in Newtown Square since transferring in from Germantown Academy. Her goal on a run through the defense and shot that hit the crossbar and bounced down past the line to even things up 1-1.
The Knights took the lead after halftime when Gray drew a penalty and Sophia Pileggi converted from the spot to make it 2-1 but Heilman quickly evened the game again on an empty net shot following a collision in the box between a Faith attacker and the Knights goalkeeper.
Silver’s pass to Pileggi led to the game-winner from distance in the 65th minute and this time the Knights held onto the lead, stretched it to 4-2 on a strike from Gray and kept Faith Christian in check the rest of the way to grab a rare win over their rivals, which knocked DC out of the district playoffs last year on a penalty shootout in the semifinal.
“We made a pact,” Gray said. “We are not going to penalties this year, we’re winning it in regular time. We had unfinished business with Faith and we finished it”
The win for DC over Faith broke a string of five straight district tournament losses to Faith and was the first win for the Knights in the fixture since October 2018.
“We haven’t beat Faith in a long time,” Young said. “And there’s a lot between the two schools and going out on penalties last year after holding them scoreless but we knew after last year that we could hang with teams that are going to go deep in the state tournament and it gave us a confidence boost.”
The boys game that followed pitted two teams that had split the regular season series and in the case of Dock Mennonite a traditional power with 13 District 1 titles looking to win their first district championship since 2019. And while balance of power tipped in DC’s favor, Dock made things difficult throughout the evening.
“Dock is an incredibly well-coached team and they’re well organized,” Atkins said. “We just had a strategy how we were going to play their backs and I think it worked really well and I’m thankful for how the guys executed what we worked on.”
An individual effort from Matteo DeBellis to create the game’s only goal off the dribble – similar to Arden Silver’s first half strike earlier in the evening – proved to be the difference.
“It was a dog fight,” DeBellis said of the game. “I thought we played with a lot of passion and I obviously can’t take all the credit because my team played amazing all around me. The goal felt amazing, the celebration was amazing and I’m just happy we’re going back to states.”
DeBellis was a key contributor to the 2023 state championship team as a freshman and again last season capturing their first district championship and making it back to the state final.
“He’s an absolute workhorse and for him to get the game-winner to clinch that for us was amazing,” Atkins said. “He’s so dependable and just leaves it all on the field every game and is a huge component to our team.”
The boys will play Lancaster Catholic to open their third state tournament run in four years next week. The girls will play Mount Cavalry. Locations and times will be announced this weekend.
