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SCRANTON — During Wyoming Seminary’s run to a district championship last year, Sujay Murthy did not play on the team.
After playing as a freshman and sophomore, Murthy took off his junior season. Now a senior, he decided to get back involved.
Then there he was on Wednesday night with the team’s hopes of repeating resting on his shoulders. Murthy answered, lining a penalty kick past Montrose keeper Brendan Buck to send the Blue Knights to their second straight District 2 Class A championship in a rematch of last year’s title game.
The game was scoreless through regulation and two overtimes before the Knights won 6-5 on penalties.
“Coming back this year just being able to wrap up the game with a winning penalty kick is something special,” Murthy said. “During that time off I kinda had to re-teach myself the game what my abilities are, because I would have lost them if I didn’t actually practice. I practiced and it paid off.”
The teams went through the first round of penalty kicks tied at 4-4. The second round was much different.
Christopher Lewis started for Montrose and beat Sem keeper Hunter Hughes. The Blue Knights’ Grayson Butcher answered with a goal to tie it up 5-5. The Meterors’ Cody Iversen sailed one high of the goal, setting up the dramatics for Murthy, who answered the call.
“In the morning before I went to school, I talked to my dad and he offered me advice that when I go up for a penalty kick ‘Just visualize yourself, pretend that I’m the keeper,’ because I think I can score on him,” Murthy said. “I just took his advice and here I am. The first taker, he missed, so it’s up to me.
“The weight was on me so I just took his advice and it worked.”
The Blue Knights, who claimed consecutive district titles for just the second time in school history and for the first time since 2001 and 2002, advance to the first round of the PIAA Championships and will play the District 4 winner on Tuesday. The District 4 championship will be decided on Thursday when top-seeded Millville plays East Juniata at 7 p.m. at the Balls Mills Soccer Complex in Williamsport.
In regulation and overtime, the Blue Knights dominated possession and had several more scoring chances than Montrose. But it was one of those nights when nothing was going to the back of the net. Seminary outshot the Meteors 20-7, but Montrose keeper Brendan Buck stopped 15 of those shots.
One of Sem’s best chances came with 3:48 left in the second half after Montrose was called for a handball just outside the penalty area. The Blue Knights lined up for a direct kick from 20 yards out, but the shot was saved by Buck.
Seconds later, another Montrose foul was called just five yards deeper. This time, the shot sailed high over the net.
“The kids were playing their game. They were moving the ball around,” said Sem coach Rev. Charles Carrick. “They kept doing what we asked them to do and they kept playing our game. Just for whatever reason…”
A risky move by Carrick in the penalty kicks paid off when he pulled normal goalkeeper Kyle Hall, who made three saves during play and came out twice to take a free kick. Carrick put Hughes in net, and the powerful leg of Hall was set to take a PK after Murthy, but wasn’t needed.
“Hunter Hughes, my backup goalie, is pretty good on penalty kicks and that’s a tough decision to make,” Carrick said. “Kyle would have taken the kick anyway even if he was in.”
District 2 Class A Final
Wyoming Seminary 1, Montrose 0
(Seminary won 6-5 on penalty kicks)
Montrose`0`0`0`0`—`0
Wyoming Seminary`0`0`0`0`—`0
Penalty kicks
Montrose (Zack Dieck, goal; Todd Lattimore, goal; Giovanni Amato, off crossbar; Tom Vaccaro, goal; Chris Spence, goal; Chris Lewis, goal; Cody Iverson, high)
Wyoming Seminary (Andrew Kim, goal; Michael Kim, goal; Edge Miller, shot saved; Eli Idec, goal; Alex Grosek, goal; Grayson Butcher, goal; Sujay Murhy, goal)
Shots — MON 7; WS 20. Saves — MON 15 (Brendan Buck); WS 3 (Kyle Hall). Corner kicks — MON 3; WS 3.
