Harriton Rivalry?

The Aces took care of business with Marple yesterday with a 4-1 Central League victory. Junior Eli Cohen tallied twice while senior tri-captain Matt Lindheim recorded a goal and 2 assists. Next up for LM (tomorrow at Arnold Field, with a 3:45 PM tap) is league leading Harriton, who played to a 1-1 tie with Radnor yesterday. If you want to know just how big this game is keep reading.
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Lower Merion vs. Harriton is a different kind of rivalry, dating back 52 years to the first time these two schools played each other in soccer in 1960 (Harriton opened as a 2nd high school in Lower Merion School District in 1959).  It's not a rivalry based on win-loss records, championships, or a battle to be the best team in the area. This rivalry is based on pride alone, which Lower Merion School District high school soccer team can beat the other on one given day. Want to know what it felt like, just ask Chris Schreiner ('88), who not only played for LM against Harriton, but later also coached the Aces as well.

  "First let me start off by saying my wife is a '89 graduate of Harriton and she used to boo me at all the LM vs Harriton soccer games. As a former player and coach at LM, when we played Harriton it was always a no win situation. When we won the game we were supposed to win, if we tied the game we played horrible and Harriton played great, and ... We never lost!  The greatest part about the games between LM and Harriton was that everyone knew each other. Whether they were friends from your club team or another club team or just from the neighborhood. The games themselves were always tough, hard-nosed physical wars, with everything on the line. Bragging rights for another year and hanging out with more Harriton girls."

After about 10 years of playing each other every year the rivalry was ended. Some sources say that it got too heated and animosity built up between not only the teams, but the 2 student bodies as well. This was also apparent in other sports besides soccer. So to help promote unity & goodwill in the School District all athletic contests between the 2 schools were discontinued.

Both school's boy's soccer teams continued to flourish, with Lower Merion dominating the Suburban One (and then the Central) league, while Harriton was without equal in the Del-Val league. Finally in 1985, with both teams having qualified for the District One playoffs (there was only 1 division back then), Lower Merion met Harriton once again on the soccer field in the district quarter-finals. Both teams were ranked highly in the area and it would be an historic game. The Aces proved to be too big and too strong for the Rams that year, as LM won 4-0 and advanced thru the District Playoffs and into the State Playoffs.

Several years later games resumed (in all sports) bewteen the 2 sister schools, with Lower Merion playing the roll of the bigger school and expected winner, while Harriton would be the underdog with nothing to lose. In the 25 times these 2 soccer powers met (thru 2010), LM won 15, lost 0, and there were 10 ties. Last year the Rams finally broke thru and defeated the Aces 2-1 in a night game at Harriton.

Now they both play in the Central League, and within a few years their enrollments should be just about equal. Count on many years of exciting games still to come.

Have an LM vs Harriton memory? Send me an email at bubdavidson@comcast.net.