With fifteen minutes to play, down 2-0, New Hope Solebury sat on the verge of defeat. Two days from tying top-ranked Pennsbury, the Lions had been kept in the game by freshman goalkeeper Hudson West, who made some incredible saves to prevent William Tennent from running away with the game.
Then in the span of ten minutes, Thomas Marschall scored a brace and Jason Cajeira headed home a free kick to give New Hope a 3-2 win Thursday afternoon in Warminster.
The win puts New Hope (4-4-3) back at the .500 mark with two division games remaining. Meanwhile, Tennent fell to 8-5 with three league games remaining. Both teams are chasing Springfield Township, who leads the Freedom division with a 7-0 record.
Tennent, who entered the game on the heels of a tough 2-1 loss to Bensalem, outplayed New Hope in the first half, but the visitors nearly struck first in the opening minute when Marschall pulled a volley wide from a cleared corner. Three minutes later, Cajeira got on the end of another New Hope corner, but Tennent’s Charlie Murtha made the save on Cajeira’s header.
The hosts grew into the game and responded with a few chances of their own. Kahlin Sulock took a shot from distance off a long throw in that West saved. Soon after, Charlie Villarroel stole a ball on a backtrack and fired away from distance, but West responded with another comfortable save. Six minutes later, Chase Criss made an overlapping run down the left side, picking out Ryder Holt at the penalty spot, but the Tennent midfielder’s header missed wide.
Tennent’s pressure finally broke the New Hope defense in the 16th minute. Vincent Kurz turned a New Hope clearance up the middle back down the right channel, putting Villarroel in on goal while the defense was pushing out. The Tennent striker broke the trap and took a settling touch before beating West to the far side to put the Panthers up 1-0.
Two minutes later, Tennent doubled their lead. On a similar transition as the first goal, Aaron Lembersky won a ball just inside the New Hope half and launched a floater in the box toward Holt, who beat West with a header.
Charlie Villarroel and Ryder Holt have Tennent up 2-0 on New Hope. https://t.co/NZ8JT1rHPp
— Backyard Pitches (@BackyardPitches) October 8, 2026
After the goal, Tennent continued to pin New Hope back in their end with a couple good looks. In the 26th minute, Villarroel spun a defender inside the box but missed wide, then two minutes later he rattled the woodwork with a running blast off the near post. In the closing seconds of the first half, Tennent had multiple cracks during a post-corner scrum. Villarroel’s shot from the six took a deflection in front and Criss followed it up with a shot from the doorstep, West’s kick save denied the hosts in what would prove to be one of a handful of chances Tennent could have finished off to increase the dynamics of the game in their favor.
In the second half, Tennent looked to be the stronger side and continued to create attacking opportunities to blow the game open. Minutes in, Villarroel won a Leon Lembersky corner at the top of the six, but his header glanced off the post. Midway through the half, Jackson Zahor took a layoff from Holt about twenty-five yards out and just missed the frame high.
As the game wore on, New Hope began to gain momentum one play at a time. Midfielder Devin Heble created a few chances on the counter and almost drew a penalty in the 57th minute. As the game opened up, and New Hope committed more players forward, Tennent had several chances at the other end to finish off the game. In the 60th minute, Nick Lepouski ran onto a Leon Lembersky through-ball and put a low shot on target toward the far corner, but West made a sprawling save. On the ensuing corner, Christian Kashishian rose above the traffic and sent a towering header on frame, only to be denied by West. A minute later, Villarroel broke free down the right side and cut a ball back to Holt on a delayed run toward the box, but West pushed Holt’s shot out of the corner. Three minutes later, from a closer spot, Holt sent another shot on frame from a cutter, this time a knuckler that West got his hands on before defender Dimitris Kesisoglou heeled it away.
New Hope weathered the storm long enough to find the opportunity they needed to mount a comeback, and it started with just over fifteen minutes to play. Marschall gave the visitors a spark when he converted a penalty to cut Tennent’s lead to 2-1, but even after the goal, Tennent continued to press for a third. Then New Hope scored the equalizer in the 73rd minute, with Marschall again providing the finish. Marschall waited for a New Hope corner toward the near post that Tennent cleared out and sat perfectly for him at the top of the box. The New Hope senior ran onto the sitter and curled a shot around a defender and into the corner to tie the game at 2-2.
Thomas Marschall scores the equalizer for New Hope. https://t.co/gPBI6lnfbm
— Backyard Pitches (@BackyardPitches) October 8, 2026
New Hope wasn’t finished and scored a third goal two minutes later. On a free kick from forty yards out, Alex DeFeo sent a long ball toward the back post that Cajeira won against two Tennent defenders. Cajeira’s header looped over Murtha and snuck under the bar and into the back of the net for the late winner.
Tennent had a few more chances on long throw-ins, but New Hope battled hard in the box and came out on top, capping an incredible comeback.
“We talked at halftime about just finding a way to grind out a result,” New Hope head coach Chris Van Pelt said after the game. “We threw four or five guys up in the last fifteen minutes just find a way to get a result.”
Van Pelt said his team had a difficult game against Pennsbury on Tuesday, a game in which they earned a hard-fought 0-0 draw against the district’s current seventh-best team, and had some sluggishness at the start as a result.
“This is a fun group of guys, a lot of seniors that are fighting in their last year. Sometimes when we’re down, we can get real down on ourselves, then as soon as we get picked back up, that’s when it can ger really fun.”
For a while, when it appeared like Tennent was going to run away with the game, keeper Hudson West bailed his team out with a number of remarkable saves.
“It was huge,” Van Pelt said. “Our normal starting goalkeeper’s out for the week, so for a freshman goalkeeper to come in and have the poise and the confidence and the ability to do that is awesome.”
New Hope will face top-of-the-table Springfield and Upper Moreland next week with their sights still set on the District 1 2A playoffs.
Meanwhile, William Tennent will look to rally from a crushing ending after playing their third game in a week.
“It’s tough to beat them twice,” Tennent coach Nick D’ Andrea said after the game. “I thought we played really good soccer today, and we had a lot of chances. Their keeper made some really big saves and kept them in the game. And the longer a team hangs around, they’re dangerous.”
After beating George Washington on Monday, Tennent had a quick turnaround against a strong Bensalem team, falling 2-1. But D’ Andrea said his team came out strong but that some mental fatigue may have led to the missed chances and a few uncharacteristic mistakes at the end. “I don’t want to take any credit away from New Hope because they were well organized, they stayed in the game, and they had fight until the end. So you’ve got to give them credit for the result.”
Tennent went from being on the cusp of hosting a first-round district game to the bottom end of the projected bracket. They’re currently 27th in the District 1 power rankings with three division games remaining and another tough matchup against Roman Catholic in the final week. But D’ Andrea remains positive about their chances.
“Last year, we got in with eleven wins, and I think we can still accomplish that. The big task in front of us is that we have everybody in our division again one more time. None of those are easy wins, so we have to come back out. We’ve got to refocus. I just think we need a mental break right now. A lot of games, a lot of minutes physically. We could use a little break. So we’re back it next Tuesday. It’ll be a big environment. We have our senior night, so hopefully we can recharge.”
