“Who wants it more?”

That was Jim Thorpe head coach Mike Dudak’s constant message to the Olympians in the second half of their District 11 2A quarterfinal matchup with Pen Argyl on Tuesday.

Thorpe answered its coach’s question on its new turf in a definitive manner, making plays down the stretch to advance to the semifinals, defeating the Green Knights 2-1.

The contest between these two evenly-matched teams over the years have all been ultracompetitive, and that showed as neither team was able to get on the scoreboard in the first half.

“We’ve played Pen Argyl, I think, for the past four years in districts, and we play them during the regular season, and it’s never been more than a one-goal game,” said Dudak. “Last year, we went to penalty kicks in the district semifinals. We’re just very evenly matched.

“They also play a very similar style to us, which also can give you problems; it’s just always been a battle between us.”

After dominating possession for most of the first half, Thorpe was finally able to get on the board early in the second half (35:56). A nice run down the middle served up a good opportunity on the left for Marc Waslesyn, who connected. Dawson Meckes was responsible for the assist.

It was evident that the Olympians had better speed than the Green Knights, and they used it on that play to attack and finish.

“I think the difference early for us, was we were trying to play pretty for a goal, but this is the playoffs; you just have to finish and put the ball in the back in the net,” said Dudak. “A lot of the time in games like this it’s going to be those scrum type goals that make the difference. We needed to get one, and we got one.”

Pen Argyl made things interesting midway through the second (20:35) as it knotted up the match with a Cade Dietz score. The match then got a bit treacherous for the Olympians, as the Green Knights kept the pressure on, getting numerous scoring opportunities in the box. But they were unable to convert.

With just under 10 minutes remaining, Thorpe showed that it didn’t want to go quietly into the night. After a run down the right side that looked like it would be a good scoring opportunity resulted in an Olympians winger upended and no call from the official, Thorpe would get redemption.

After another Olympians surge into the middle, a hand ball at the 8:51 mark would set up a penalty kick for Jack Morris, who didn’t let his teammates down, pounding it through the right side of the net for the eventual game-winner.

“The unfortunate part of the hand ball rule is that if it’s in the box, you get a penalty kick. That’s the rule and it is what it is, but honestly they owed us any way from the play just before that,” said Dudak. “But officials are going to miss calls; you just have to move on and we did. That was a strong team we beat today, and credit to them for a hard-fought game.”

NEXT UP … The No. 2 seeded Olympians will now take on No. 6 seed Pine Grove on Thursday at Olympians’ Stadium at a time to be determined in the District 11 2A semis.