Elco Surrenders Three Quick Goals, Can’t Keep Up with Hempfield

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Elco Surrenders Three Quick Goals, Can’t Keep Up with Hempfield

Oct 14, 2017
Jeff Falk
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BY JEFF FALK

WITMER – The Elco boys’ soccer program boasts a storied playoff history of success and championships. But the Raiders’ recent past hasn’t been as glorious, especially when it comes to the Lancaster-Lebanon League tournament.

On an overcast Saturday afternoon at Conestoga Valley High School, Elco’s league postseason drought deepened during a 6-0 quarterfinal setback to Hempfield. The Raiders yielded three goals in the contest’s first 9:42 and never really generated much of a comeback effort.

The loss dropped Elco, the third-place finisher out of Section Three, to 9-9 overall. The Raiders’ next action will come in the District Three Class AA postseason on October 24th, as the tenth seed, against Lancaster Catholic.

Hempfield, the champion of Section One, upped its overall mark to 15-3 and moved into Tuesday’s semifinal round of the league tournament.

Overall, the Raiders have claimed 13 Lancaster-Lebanon League championships, but none over the last 33 years. In that time, Elco has won five District Three titles, and even three state championships.

“Our last league title was in (19)84, but we’ve won three state titles since,” said Elco head coach Kirk Keppley. “When you’re looking at a program having two or three times more kids coming out, that’s a huge difference. We used to be able to overcome that. But things are definitely changing.

“With the way things went the last two years (in the league playoffs), our goal was to go forty minutes without giving up a goal,” continued Keppley. “We were looking to shorten the game. Unfortunately, it didn’t go that way. They (the Black Knights) came out a little differently than we expected.”

It may not have appeared that way at the time, but the outcome was pretty much settled in the opening ten minutes.

Hempfield, which possessed the ball for long periods of time, got on the scoreboard 2:27 in when Drew Johnson made a hard run down the right side of the field. From a tough angle, Johnson shuffled a pass to teammate Mark Lutz, whose shot – the first of the game – was true to the far post.

Lutz made it 2-0 with a rebound from the door step, after an initial shot on the Elco frame caromed off the goalkeeper’s gloved hands. Some 1:40 later, the Black Knights scored again, without the benefit of a shot.

In an attempt to clear a ball, a Raider defender inadvertently knocked it into his own goal. Johnson was credited with the tally.

“We gave up three early,” said Keppley. “We had a game plan, and when you give up three goals early, it kind of kills things. Everything’s like, ‘Oh, no.’ You could see the kids were unsettled. When you go down 3-0, it drains energy, it’s hard to battle back.

“But we went for 50 minutes of playing well,” Keppley continued. “We were much more into the game. I thought when we went back to our normal style, they (his players) responded. We were playing our game, more than a defensive style.”

Although they were much more competitive in the second part of the first half and into the second stanza, the Raiders never really got anything going offensively. Elco recorded its first and only shot of the game 18:49 into the second half, but by that time it was 4-0 Hempfield thanks to another Johnson goal, from Jesse Gutierez.

With less than seven minutes remaining, the Black Knights closed out the scoring with a pair of goals, from Ethan Keital and Jake Edmonds.

“I’m sure the mentality is there, like ‘We’ve got an uphill fight,'” said Keppley of the Raiders’ recent struggles in the L-L playoffs. “I’m sure it played into it. ‘Hey, we’re playing a Section One team’. I don’t know that this helps us. I’m hoping we can put it behind us for districts.

“They (the Black Knights) move the ball,” added Keppley. “After the first ten minutes, they (the Black Knights) put subs in, and there wasn’t any difference. It was a big school-little school thing.”

The Black Knights counted 15 shots and collected eight corner kicks. Elco keeper Adam Johnson came up with six saves.

“Against good teams, we’ve struggled scoring,” said Keppley. “We’ve got to find that connection. We’ve been moving guys around all year. We’ve had some injuries and when you have hurt kids trying to get things going, it’s tough.

“They (the Black Knights) move well off the ball,” Keppley added. “They have good overall team speed. Sometimes we got caught chasing the ball and chasing the man. They were getting to the second ball better than us. They were anticipating better than us.”

To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to view more go to https://lebanonsportsbuzz.com/photo-gallery/.

2017 Elco Boys’ Soccer Results



Date	Teams	Score
9/01 10:00 am	Palmyra at Elco	2 1
9/06 7:00 pm	Elco at Lancaster Catholic	1 3
9/08 4:00 pm	Lebanon Catholic at Elco	0 7
9/09 5:30 pm	Elco at Cedar Crest	0 1
9/12 7:00 pm	Lancaster Mennonite at Elco	6 2
9/14 7:00 pm	Elco at Donegal	3 0
9/16 10:00 am	Northern Lebanon at Elco	1 8
9/19 7:00 pm	Pequea Valley at Elco	2 3
9/21 4:00 pm	Elco at Annville-Cleona	3 0
9/23 10:00 am	Wyomissing at Elco	3 1
9/27 7:00 pm	Lancaster Catholic at Elco	1 2
9/29 4:00 pm	Elco at Lebanon Catholic	5 0
9/30 11:00 am	Elco at Tulpehocken
10/02 7:00 pm	Elco at Lancaster Mennonite	0 5
10/04 7:00 pm	Donegal at Elco	2 1
10/06 4:00 pm	Elco at Northern Lebanon	6 1
10/09 7:00 pm	Elco at Pequea Valley	0 2
10/11 4:00 pm	Annville-Cleona at Elco	1 2
10/14 12:00 pm	Elco Hempfield at Conestoga Valley

PIAA District Three

Class AA Power Rankings

AA	School	W	L	T	Rating	TWP	OWP	TWPW	OWPW	TWPL	OWPL
1	Lancaster Mennonite	18-	0-	0	0.751427	1.000000	0.447615	17.4	143.6	0.0	177.2
2	Oley Valley	13-	4-	0	0.665528	0.777778	0.528334	13.3	155.7	3.8	139.0
3	Wyomissing	14-	4-	0	0.657621	0.761905	0.530163	12.8	166.1	4.0	147.2
4	Tulpehocken	13-	3-	2	0.651450	0.755814	0.523894	13.0	162.3	4.2	147.5
5	Biglerville	13-	3-	1	0.627928	0.779605	0.442545	11.9	125.6	3.4	158.2
6	Middletown	11-	4-	1	0.609782	0.719653	0.475495	12.5	146.5	4.9	161.6
7	Lancaster Catholic	14-	4-	0	0.602047	0.752941	0.417621	12.8	131.3	4.2	183.1
8	Trinity	11-	7-	0	0.571853	0.611111	0.523871	12.1	162.4	7.7	147.6
9	Eastern York	6-	10-	2	0.493768	0.422619	0.580728	7.1	169.1	9.7	122.1
10	Eastern Lebanon County	9-	9-	0	0.484250	0.477011	0.493097	8.3	157.2	9.1	161.6
11	Pequea Valley	9-	9-	0	0.463576	0.478022	0.445920	8.7	137.7	9.5	171.1
12	Hanover	9-	6-	0	0.458118	0.523810	0.377829	7.7	98.5	7.0	162.2
13	Bermudian Springs	7-	9-	0	0.398795	0.386905	0.413328	6.5	107.3	10.3	152.3
14	Brandywine Heights	5-	12-	1	0.380222	0.240113	0.551466	4.3	165.6	13.5	134.7
15	Annville Cleona	5-	12-	0	0.368381	0.248555	0.514835	4.3	152.7	13.0	143.9
16	Littlestown	5-	13-	0	0.339838	0.260204	0.437169	5.1	123.9	14.5	159.5
17	Upper Dauphin	5-	10-	1	0.327166	0.234463	0.440468	4.2	133.6	13.6	169.7
18	Schuylkill Valley	1-	15-	1	0.302661	0.070122	0.586876	1.2	174.0	15.3	122.5
19	Boiling Springs	1-	15-	0	0.301826	0.071429	0.583423	1.1	163.0	14.3	116.4
20	Delone Catholic	2-	13-	0	0.296707	0.150289	0.475663	2.6	109.5	14.7	120.7
21	Susquenita	1-	16-	0	0.239252	0.034826	0.489106	0.7	130.2	19.4	136.0