BY JEFF FALK

MILLERSVILLE – Losing’s never easy. But when you’re not expecting to get there or be there, well it can remove at least part of the sting and lessen the blow.

On a clear Wednesday evening at Penn Manor High School, Annville-Cleona’s surprising field hockey season came to an end, with a somewhat disappointing 3-0 loss to Schuylkill Valley, in the opening round of the District Three Class A postseason. Despite its inability to generate much of an offensive push, the Little Dutchmen were very much in the contest, until the Panthers netted a pair of goals over the game’s final 18:38.

The ninth-seeded Little Dutchmen concluded their year by losing five of their last six contests. On its way to capturing its second straight Lancaster-Lebanon Section Three crown, Annville-Cleona went 13-6 overall.

Eighth-seeded Schuylkill Valley will carry an 11-6 mark into Saturday’s quarterfinal round.

“I tried to tell them at the end of game that it’s hard to look past a 3-0 loss and be happy with your season,” said Annville-Cleona head coach Sue Felty of her troops. “Anybody who looked at us back in August wouldn’t have expected us to get to districts.

“I think the section championship was the highlight of the season,” continued Felty. “Just because of how unexpected it was. We only had four starters back from last year. We had a lot of young kids. To say we were section champions and got to a district game, that’s something to be proud of.”

The Little Dutchmen experienced difficulties possessing the ball in the midfield and connecting passes. Annville-Cleona managed just two shots all evening, the first of which came with 9:55 remaining, and Schuylkill Valley ahead 2-0.

“It was not the effort,” said Felty. “We didn’t execute. And things like that are frustrating. But I don’t think it was our best effort.

“We’ve been shuffling people around,” Felty continued. “We didn’t have our offense. That early goal took the wind out of our sails.”

Playing from behind certainly didn’t aid the Little Dutchmen’s cause – something they did for more than 57 of the contest’s 60 minutes. It was Allison Ammarrell’s unassisted tally 2:50 in that put them behind the eight-ball.

“It’s hard to say,” said Felty. “We thought we could play with them. We thought we could match up with them, even though we were missing some players. We were hopeful we could at least play with them.”

The Panthers scored on their first shot of the second half to make it 2-0. From the right part of the circle, Gabby Rider got off a quick shot that beat Annville-Cleona net-minder Madison Luciotti to the short side.

Schuylkill Valley put the outcome out of reach with 5:56 remaining. Off a scramble in the goal mouth, persistent Kaydence Muller displayed a lot of stick-to-itiveness to the right post.

“Defensively, we did well,” said Felty. “We have some good things to come. We had two seniors on the field today, and some (players) had never played field hockey before. And here they are in a district game. To have a high expectation, we weren’t looking to get what we got out of the season.”

The Panthers totaled 11 shots on goal. Schuylkill Valley took 12 penalty corners to Annville-Cleona’s two.

“Things started to work,” said Felty of the season. “I definitely feel like we were a skilled team. I think that has come a long way. We’ve really pushed for fundamentals. The one thing we’re lacking is aggressiveness, which comes with age and experience.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2017 Annville-Cleona Field Hockey Results