BY JEFF FALK ANNVILLE _ The Annville-Cleona field hockey program has apparently got things turned around. It is an about-face that Elco wouldn’t mind trying itself.
In a Thursday match-up of two teams in different stages of their developments, Elco upset Annville-Cleona 1-0. The Raiders tallied an early second-half goal and senior goalie Kendra Moll made it stand up.
With the win, Elco moved to 3-7-1 on the campaign and 3-3-1 in Section Three of the Lancaster-Lebanon League. Annville-Cleona dropped to 6-3 on the year and 4-2 in the section.
The intra-Lebanon County clash was billed as a ‘Pink Game’ to raise awareness of breast cancer.
“We were just so excited for this game,” said Elco rookie head coach Lisa Kercher. “Not only were we playing to beat Annville-Cleona, but we were here for the cause.”
“Absoultely. It was definitely a tough loss,” said Annville-Cleona head coach Sue Felty. “The girls were heart-broken, They think they should’ve won. It’s hard for them.”
After battling through a zip-zip first-half stalemate, senior forward Kelsey Harnish got the Raiders on the board 9:04 into the second stanza. Following a corner, Harnish converted a feed from fellow 12th-grader Amy Kreider.
“It came after a corner,” said Felty of the game’s only tally. “Vicky Seibecker rushed out and I thought they (the officials) were going to call a dangerous stick. They didn’t and they (the Raiders) scored. I was frustrated.”
Moll was credited with 11 saves.
“Our goalie was on top of her game today,” said Kercher. “She had a lot of saves and a shutout, which was awesome.”
Thursday’s contest was postponed from Wednesday due to soggy field conditions. On Tuesday in Myerstown, Annville-Cleona handed the Raiders a 3-0 setback.
“On Tuesday, we thought they were they better team,” said Kercher. “Today we came out with the attitude taht we could play with them. We worked as a team better than we ever have.”
“Have you ever coached girls?,” said Felty. “It’s very unpredictable. There were a lot of distractions. The rain has done a job on us. Mentally, you’ve got to be able to re-charge and re-set. They (her players) wanted to win, but I’m not sure they were focused as much as they have been.”
Combined, the two programs raised $4,000 for breast cancer.
“Two of my senior captains, Kathryn Fuhrman and Kendra Moll, made this their senior project,” said Kercher. “We and Annville-Cleona have been fund-raising all wekk. We had a ‘Pink Day’ yesterday (Wednesday) in both of our districts.”
“It’s been a nice season,” said Felty. “We started 4-0 and we’ve never been 4-0. There’s been seasons where we didn’t even win four games. But we have some of the powerhouses in our section to come.
“We had a bad week last week,” Felty continued. “Last week was our blip. We stepped back and talked about some things. And Monday we came out strong. In a season, you have hurdles you’ve got to overcome. Good teams take a loss and make something out of it. Good teams bounce back when they lose.”
Annville-Cleona’s goals for the rest of the season aren’t all that different than Elco’s.
“Our goals haven’t changed,” said Felty. “We want to make districts. We still need a couple of wins and we’d like to beat some teams we haven’t beaten before. But we need to get more wins, as far as districts go.”
“Coming into the season, we only had four wins last year,” said Kercher. “So we’re looking for four wins, and we can definitely do that. These girls have had losing records for years and I want to turn things around.
“Because of the way the district playoffs are now, it’s not just .500 to get in any more,” Kercher added. “We have to wait until the end of the season and see how it works out. If we win the upcoming games we should win, it’s (the postseason) definitely a possiblity.”
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