Championship disappointments fueled Fleetwood Tigers’ run to BCIAA soccer title (updated)

By Jason Guarente — MikeDragoSports.com senior correspondent

To say Malachi Herndon was motivated by how last season ended doesn’t quite cover it. Those results were on his mind every day. They fueled him.

Twice Fleetwood reached a championship game and twice it fell short. That’s a lot of disappointment to swallow.

“It was hard,” Herndon said. “It was a quiet bus ride home for me. I knew our goal. It was coming back this year and getting hardware.”

Top-seeded Fleetwood held off No. 7 Exeter 2-1 in the BCIAA boys soccer championship game at Tulpehocken Thursday night.

The medal ceremony was more enjoyable for the Tigers this time. That hardware was gold.

“We wanted to get back to this stage,” senior back Ryan Piskorski said. “We wanted to win. We remembered what happened. Once we got here, it was like, ‘Finish off our goal.’ ”

Fleetwood (15-5) lost to Oley Valley and Northern York, respectively, in the county and District 3 Class 3A championship games a year ago.

Getting another shot was no foregone conclusion. The Tigers lost most of their top players and didn’t have their usual sky-high expectations. They weren’t the favorites. They were a mystery.

Herndon, an All-Berks candidate and one of the few returning starters, wasn’t worried.

“We had something,” he said. “Everybody doubted us. They said we lost everybody. But I knew each and every one of these kids worked hard all summer long. We’re the hardest-working team in Berks.”

Once summer neared its end and practices began, there were a few more believers wearing red and white jerseys. Fleetwood’s players saw a shift. All those voluntary kickarounds began to pay dividends.

“If you said before preseason what would happen, we never would have believed this was the outcome,” Piskorski said. “During the preseason we realized we cling together. We realized we were the best in the county. We could actually get to this level and win it.”

Nate Herb scored off a pass from Davin Millisock to put Fleetwood ahead 10 minutes into the first half. That 1-0 lead held for most of the night.

A wild, 24-second sequence during the second half is what pushed Fleetwood over the top. The Tigers took a gut punch and then delivered one of their own.

Josh Candelario, who scored the game-winner against Oley in the semifinals two nights earlier, delivered again to put Fleetwood ahead 2-1 with 10:07 left. Candelario is tied for the team lead with six goals.

“He has improved so much,” Herndon said. “I love that kid to death. He was a sophomore last year and he started on JV. He came up and now he’s on top. He’s one of the best in the county. Next year is his year. The county is gonna have to watch out.”

Candelario’s goal swung the pendulum of emotions.

Exeter (8-10-3) had just erased the deficit. A beautiful flick by Jared Green sent Mike Moser on a breakaway and the Eagles tied it with 10:31 remaining. They controlled play for much of the second half and the bench erupted when they finally found the equalizer. The excitement didn’t last long.

After a remarkable run to the final, Exeter ran out of magic. The Eagles were 2-8-2 after 12 games and needed help on the season’s final day to qualify for the tournament. They defeated Wyomissing and Tulpehocken to get here.

For all the talk about how the league was wide open this year, and it was, no one had a better resume than Fleetwood. The Tigers went 14-1 against Berks opponents.

“We always set goals and this is one of our goals,” coach Keith Schlegel said. “We want to be here every year and give ourselves an opportunity to win. This is the first group I’ve had in a long time that didn’t have that many returning starters. But we had talent.”

Fleetwood has watched some tremendous teams fall short in October. This is the Tigers’ second county title since 2009. It’s a hard trophy to win. This group pulled it off.

When Fleetwood fell to Oley in last year’s final, a humbling 5-1 decision on its home field, Herndon burned the date into his memory: Oct. 31, 2020.

“After that final whistle, we wanted it,” Herndon said. “And we got it.”