PAC Boys Soccer Final Preview: Perkiomen Valley vs. Upper Merion

It’s an all-Viking Pioneer Athletic Conference boys soccer championship game when Liberty Division champion Perkiomen Valley takes on Frontier winner Upper Merion on Thursday night, 7 p.m., at Owen J. Roberts.

A breakdown of the matchup:

Perkiomen Valley (1) vs. Upper Merion (2)

Records: Perkiomen Valley – 9-1 PAC Liberty, 12-1 PAC, 18-1 overall, No. 3 in District 1-4A rankings … Upper Merion – 9-1 PAC Frontier, 10-3 PAC, 13-5 overall, No. 16 in District 1-4A rankings

Head-to-head: Perk Valley won one of its closest games in PAC play over Upper Merion 2-1 on Sept. 27, Christian Campbell feeding Andrew Bricker for the game-winner with three minutes remaining in regulation.

PAC Playoff history >> Perkiomen Valley is four-time PAC champions (1987, 1997, 2001, 2018). Perk Valley last qualified for the Final Four in 2021 when it fell to Boyertown in the semifinals  … Upper Merion is making its first trip to the final in three appearances in the Final Four

Perkiomen Valley at a glance >> The Vikings, in its fifth season under Zach Allen, have been a revelation this season, a far cry from the 5-12-1 season it recorded in 2022. The introduction of senior forward Nathan Brown has been the biggest reason why. In his first year playing high school soccer after spending his previous years playing in MLS Next with FC Delco, Brown has proven to be one of the most elite center forwards the PAC has seen. He’s well over 20 goals this year and solved PV’s scoring issues from 2022. Junior Matteo LoRegio and senior Cody Basilio play the wide attacking positions while Perk Valley is partially in flux in the midfield after senior Christian Campbell suffered a season-ending knee injury last week. Sophomores Andrew Bricker and holding mid Owen Baker join senior captain Sean Schoeniger in the middle of the park. The back four consists of Chris Saboe-Moore, Lawson Finger, Will Watson and Lucas Nguyen and junior Aidan Autivino is between the pipes.

Upper Merion at a glance >> David Lawrence’s squad has some dynamic attacking personnel who have scored 71 goals, second-highest in the PAC. The timing of Upper Merion’s rise has been just right, running their streak of scoring three-or-more goals to six games with their semifinal win over Spring-Ford.  That attacking personnel is led by juniors Ben WIntersteen, Sander Urias and Nick Dos Santos and seniors Arjun Kaushik and Josh Nguyen.  Sophomore Sean Rogers leads the defense in front of senior goalkeeper Dominik Doan.

Matchup >> The all-Viking PAC final has the makings of being an entertaining one. Perk Valley has scored two or more goals in 18 straight games. Upper Merion is riding a streak of six games with three or more scores. Add it up and these capable sides can be counted on to bring the goals in the PAC final. Their regular season meeting shows Upper Merion can absolutely hang with the 18-1 Liberty Division champs. Hanging with and defeating are two different things though. Brown chose to play high school soccer for the first time with the goal of playing in and winning a PAC championship. With his finishing quality and this stage, Perk Valley simply has the advantage … Perkiomen Valley 3, Upper Merion 1