The beginning of October and the start of the Inter-Ac soccer season fell on the same day last week, and on that Tuesday afternoon the lads of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy traveled to Germantown Academy to launch the 2024 league campaign.

After a fairly even run of play, the first half ended with the score still 0-0, but in the second period, the visiting Blue Devils broke the ice with 25 minutes remaining. Adding an insurance goal with a dozen minutes left, SCH notched a 2-0 league win and improved its overall standing to 6-4-2.

Junior AJ Trunfio and senior Michael Glennon scored, and senior Andrew Laudenbach helped set up both goals. Junior goalie Cole Carberry recorded the shutout.

While Carberry has been a fixture in the SCH cage since he was an eighth grader, junior Rowen Harbert has become GA's starting goalie following the departure of last year's senior keeper, Josh Bouchard. Bouchard is now playing for Dickinson College, where SCH's Laudenbach will continue his soccer career.

The Patriots also lost seven other players from their 2023 squad. After last Tuesday's league opener, they were 2-6-1 overall.

Kurt Wetzel has returned for his seventh season as GA head coach, and longtime assistant Matt Rominger is back to work primarily with the goaltenders.

A new assistant, Larry Wetzel (no relation to Kurt), has brought extensive club soccer experience to the team, and his son, Charlie, is a sophomore on the squad.

Last Tuesday, GA was missing injured senior JT Quinter, who will go on to the College of William & Mary.

After displaying solid midfield defense at the start, GA moved up to earn the game's first corner kick, but the ball bounced right across the goalmouth to the far side without a solid touch on it. A little later GA's Harbert got a hand on an SCH corner ball to deflect it, then he saved a shot on the ground.

A few more corner opportunities for the Patriots passed by without a shot, and then a Blue Devils corner kick from the left yielded a shot by junior Pat Donohue that missed at the near post. On a Germantown charge up the left wing, the visitors' Carberry ventured far out of the cage but couldn't get to the ball. GA junior Ben Creighton shot the ball past him, but it strayed outside the right post.

With about five minutes left in the opening period, SCH sophomore Warren Miller left the field with a minor injury (he returned for the start of the second half). At the intermission, the score was still 0-0.

Over the first 10 minutes of the second stanza the Blue Devils had a free kick by Glennon veer outside the right post, and had junior Owen Hackford fire wide to the left.

From the right of the SCH cage, Patriots junior Connor Harrington headed the ball down toward the goal and Carberry grabbed it. With 27:10 remaining in the contest, a yellow card was handed out to one of the Blue Devils, and they responded by going on the attack.

From far out along the left end line, Laudenbach expertly crossed the ball to the front of the goal, where Trunfio arrived to knock it into the net. The visitors were on the scoreboard with 25:23 left to play.

A few minutes later Laudenbach took a strong shot of his own, but Harbert made the stop for GA. At the other end, Harrington sent a shot over the crossbar right around the middle of the period.

An SCH corner kick came and went without incident, and on a Germantown corner booted from the right side, one of the Patriots got a head on the ball but sent it straight up in the air instead of toward the goal.

The play that led to the SCH insurance goal began with Laudenbach working along the left wing. He passed down toward the end line to Glennon. The GA defense seemed to hesitate as if expecting an offsides call. There was no whistle, and Glennon shot the ball over into the right side of the goal with 11:46 left to play.

Not long after that, the ball was rolling loose briefly in front of the SCH net, but none of the Pats could get to it before Carberry scooped it up.

Harrington, who'd been active on the attack for GA all game, went off the pitch with a cramp. With just over five minutes to go, a strong shot by the Blue Devils' Miller proved a little too high. In the waning moments, GA's Harbert made a nice save on a close-range shot by Laudenbach, but the visitors were still up two goals at the final horn.