Archmere Soccer Wins DIAA Division II Boys State Championship

"The Auks made an early goal stand up, thanks to a strong defense that continued to get better as the game went on for a 1-0 victory over Wilmington Friends on Saturday night at Dover High School."
A corner kick by Archmere senior Andrew Rosenbaum in the 16th minute bounced off a defender and into the net, and that goal held up as Archmere, the top seed in Division II, defeated No. 2 Wilmington Friends, 1-0, for the DIAA State Championship on November 16th at Dover High School. It is the first soccer state title in Archmere school history. 

Mike Lang of the Dialog spoke to Andrew Rosenbaum '20 after the game, who said of his goal, “They didn’t have anybody front post, and I saw Joseph Iacono standing on the keeper. There was a big gap between their guy who was standing with Oryem (Kilama of Friends), and I thought I could play the ball into Joseph, and he just got in front of the keeper, made him miss the ball, and the defender kind of just bumped it in. Without Joseph being there, we never would have scored that goal, so I owe all props to him.”

After that goal, the Auks were ahead, but there was plenty of soccer to be played under the lights on a frigid Saturday evening. Both teams traded unsuccessful corner kicks midway through the first half, but neither came very close to resulting in a goal. The Quakers pushed the pace while attempting to equalize the score, but Archmere goalkeeper Niko Triantafillou '22 was relentless in his defense. 

The News Journal captured the significance of the win for Archmere's seniors: “For this collective group, we have a number of seniors that have been playing varsity for four years. I’m just really happy for them,” Archmere coach Bob Bussiere said. “We talked about it before the game. We gave tribute to our seniors, and we said ‘Tonight, we play for them.’ And we did.”

Archmere had an 8-5 edge in shots and 8-3 in corner kicks. The Auks finished the season 17-1. Congratulations to the Archmere soccer team on the State Championship!

Multiple news outlets covered the game. For full game details in the News Journal article, click here.

To read the Dialog news article about Archmere "Family" and the significance of the state title, click here.
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Archmere Academy is a private, Catholic, college preparatory co-educational academy,
grades 9-12 founded in 1932 by the Norbertine Fathers.