‘Win and You’re In’ Tonight for the Hopewell Boys Soccer Team

While the WPIAL playoffs won’t officially start until next week, the playoffs will unofficially begin this evening for Coach Nathan Richter and the Hopewell Boys soccer team.

Tonight, the Vikings will travel to Dormont Stadium to take on Keystone Oaks in their most important game of the season.

What’s at stake? If Hopewell wins, they’ll qualify as the 4th team in their section for the playoffs. If they lose or tie, they’ll be eliminated.

Here are the current standings heading into tonight’s matchup.

CLASS 2A, SECTION 2:
Avonworth: 14-1-1
Quaker Valley: 13-1-1
Central Valley: 12-3
Hopewell: 8-7
Keystone Oaks: 7-7-1
Beaver: 7-7-1

The Vikings have seemingly been in a must-win mode for the past 3 weeks as they haven’t been in a position to lose many matches.

Over their last 9 matches, Hopewell has compiled a record of 6-3, included in those were key wins over Keystone Oaks and Central Valley. Even in two of the loses, Hopewell was very competitive and were in the match late against both Quaker Valley (losing 3-1) and first-place Avonworth (losing 3-2).

In their earlier matchup with Keystone Oaks, Hopewell trailed 2-1 in the second half before Nykyeron Leonora tied things up at 2 and then junior Bryce Ray scored a late goal to give Hopewell a crucial 3-2 win.

A win tonight would put Hopewell in the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

Last season, they defeated defending champion, Deer Lakes, in the first round of the WPIAL Playoffs, before losing in the next round to Shady Side Academy, 3-1. That win over Deer Lakes was the first playoff win for the Hopewell boys’ team in 12 seasons.

The match tonight from Dormont Stadium will begin at 7:15 PM.

Good luck and Go Vikings!