Abington students and alumni have waited a long time to see the Ghosts hoist a PIAA State Championship trophy. I’d say it was worth it.
Abington’s run to the state championship was filled with memorable moments, but I think everyone who made the two hour drive to Manchester, Pennsylvania can agree that this is the one that’ll be remembered the most.
The Ghosts had complete control from the start. Cooper Blynt started the scoring 15 minutes into the game and Abington never looked back. Christian Hinkel scored just 8 minutes later, followed by a diving header from Jasa Vasquez to put the Ghosts up 3. Abington’s defense shut down every opportunity the Warriors had to pull off a comeback.
The first half was excellent, and the second half was more of the same. The Ghosts continued to shut down Henderson’s offense, with the only Warriors goal of the game coming off a penalty kick in the final minutes. Too little too late.
In a moment 101 years in the making, the clock hit zero with the final score standing at 3-1 Abington, enough for the Ghosts to capture their first state title.
I asked Coach Pitkow about the importance of this moment.
Me: What did your team do well to secure the win?
Coach Pitkow: Our team this year was a true family. Not many teams can say they were as close as this team was and that helped them play so well together on the field. Maybe most importantly we started playing well at the right time. Many of our players, not least seniors Christian Hinkel and Cooper Blynt, had their best games of the season in the state semi finals and state championship games. To win something as prestigious as a state championship a team needs to be playing to the best of their ability at the right time and that is exactly what we did.
Me: How did it feel to win the first state championship in program history?
Coach Pitkow: It is an amazing feeling. Knowing that only Boys Basketball in 1974 and Boys Lacrosse in 1981 were the only two other teams to win a state championship in school history as well is an incredible feeling. We know this team will now go down in history as one of the best Abington sports teams in history and we are very proud of that. Most importantly we hope this is motivation for the rest of the school to carry our success forward. We hope many of the other sports programs look at our team and think “why can’t we do this as well?” and really start to believe. We have some amazing athletes in this school in all of our sports so we hope this gives a lot of them the motivational spark they need to go on and do something special.
