BY JEFF FALK

HERSHEY – Perhaps a number of factors ultimately caught up with the Elco girls’ soccer team. But it certainly wasn’t as bad as it looked.

And neither was it befitting or representative of the kind of season that the Raiders enjoyed.

On a brisk Thursday evening at Hershey High School, in the quarterfinals of the District Three Class AAA postseason, Elco’s stellar season came crashing down with a 4-0 loss to Lower Dauphin that was more competitive than the final score might indicate. After trailing 1-0, despite enjoying the better of the play, the Raiders surrendered three goals in match’s final 10:27.

Forced to shuffle players around due to an injury to starting defender Julia Nelson – which included moving star midfielder Ryelle Shuey to center back – Elco experienced difficulties completing offensive runs, then had trouble defending its frame. The smallest school in the District Three Class AAA tournament, the fifth-seeded Raiders completed their campaign with a 17-3-1 mark.

Along the way, Elco claimed its third straight Lancaster-Lebanon Section Three championship.

Fourth-seeded Lower Dauphin upped its overall record to 13-6 and barged into Monday’s semifinal round of the playoffs.

“Things never go the way you want them to,” said Elco head coach Derek Fulk. “The disappointing thing is this is three years in-a-row we lost in this round. We just haven’t been able to get that win. We had a fantastic season. It’s going to end one way or another. But we’ve got enough coming back. The cupboard isn’t bare.

“Maybe some people would question moving Rye back there (to defense),” continued. Fulk. “But she’s a smart player and she’s played back there before. And it was only moving one player. But losing a player of Julia’s caliber is tough.”

Elco played from behind most of the match, after yielding a ‘softie’ 13:39 in.

On the left side of the field, Lower Dauphin’s dangerous forward, Rachel Clouser, beat the Raider goalkeeper to a ball and touched it by her. From there, all that was left for Clouser to do was walk in and deposit the ball into the open net.

“I think for the circumstances of having Julia out, in the first half, we did pretty well,” said Fulk. “Obviously the goal wasn’t good. In the second half, I wasn’t pleased. Four-nothing looks a lot worse than one-nothing.

“Not having her (Nelson) gave them (the Falcons) an advantage,” added Fulk. “But we were confident coming in. Not having Julia was a tough loss for us.”

“I thought we came out really strong. We just couldn’t finish,” said Shuey. “We had chances, we just couldn’t finish them. I thought we were definitely the better team. At the end, it was fatigue.

“This game would’ve sent us to states,” added Shuey. “That would’ve been nice. We definitely had some bumps in the road this season.”

While the Raiders were able to possess the ball in the Lower Dauphin zone, they didn’t produce many dangerous scoring chances. Perhaps the best one came from freshman Katelyn Rueppel late in the first half, when she clanged a ball of the crossbar that could’ve tied the game.

“It definitely changed the complexion of the game,” said Fulk of Rueppel’s bullet. “We had another play where a lot of people thought we were on-sides. That’s the way this game goes. It’s a crazy game.

“Maybe that’s part of playing Rye in the back,” Fulk added. “We were missing that last piece. We created some nice chances. I thought it (the flow of play) was at least even.”

“They put Tanisha (Grewal) at attack,” said Shuey. “They put Cassie (Johnson) up front. They knew what the had to do. And they followed through with it. It just didn’t work out.”

It was still an evenly-played game until Lower Dauphin struck for it second goal, with less than 11 minutes to go. Off a corner play, Falcon Adeline Gesford nailed a right-footer from 25 yards away.

“I think once it got to 2-0, we sat back and became complacent,” said Fulk. “And they (the Falcons) made us pay.

“It (moving Shuey back to a more attacking position) was almost right (at the same time) when they scored that second goal,” continued Fulk. “On the third and fourth goals, that’s where we got caught pushing up. I would’ve liked to play them under the best of circumstances. They have good players, and they’re organized.”

“With Julia being out, we had to switch our lineup,” said Shuey. “I thought the girls handled it well. It is what it is. Sometimes you just have to for for it.”

The two Lower Dauphin goals that made the result look worse than it was were scored by Morgan Chiara and Clouser, 3:03 apart late in the second half.

“Taking someone of her caliber out of the attack hurts us,” said Fulk of Shuey. “We have good enough people to surround her. We thought it (moving Shuey to defense) gave us the best chance.”

Lower Dauphin ended up out shooting Elco 11-7. But the Raiders took six corner kicks, compared to the Falcons’ two.

“When I was younger, I always played back,” said Shuey. “They moved me up because I was bigger. So I was used to it. I was nervous at first, but I felt comfortable overall.”

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2017 Elco Girls’ Soccer Results

Date	Teams	Score
9/01 12:00 pm	Tulpehocken at Elco	0 10
9/02 10:00 am	Palmyra Elco at Donegal
9/02 10:00 am	Conrad Weiser at Elco	2 5
9/07 7:00 pm	Lancaster Catholic at Elco	0 1
9/08 4:00 pm	Elco at Lebanon Catholic	12 1
9/09 7:00 pm	Elco at Cedar Crest	2 1
9/12 7:00 pm	Elco at Lancaster Mennonite	1 0
9/14 7:00 pm	Donegal at Elco	0 4
9/16 7:00 pm	Elco at Northern Lebanon	7 1
9/19 4:00 pm	Elco at Pequea Valley	5 0
9/21 7:00 pm	Annville-Cleona at Elco	0 3
9/25 4:00 pm	Middletown at Elco	0 4
9/27 4:00 pm	Elco at Lancaster Catholic	3 0
9/29 4:00 pm	Lebanon Catholic at Elco	1 12
10/02 7:00 pm	Lancaster Mennonite at Elco	0 3
10/04 7:00 pm	Elco at Donegal	1 1
10/06 4:00 pm	Northern Lebanon at Elco	0 9
10/09 7:00 pm	Pequea Valley at Elco	2 1
10/11 4:00 pm	Elco at Annville-Cleona	8 0
10/28 5:00 pm	Elco Lower Dauphin at Hershey High School

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PIAA District Three

 Class AAA Power Rankings

 

AAA	School	W	L	T	Rating	TWP	OWP	TWPW	OWPW	TWPL	OWPL
1	Fleetwood	17-	0-	0	0.811795	1.000000	0.581766	17.9	160.8	0.0	115.6
2	East Pennsboro	17-	0-	0	0.776340	1.000000	0.502978	17.5	152.0	0.0	150.2
3	Northern York	14-	3-	1	0.735016	0.867568	0.573009	16.1	181.3	2.5	135.1
4	Lower Dauphin	11-	6-	0	0.714710	0.754190	0.666456	13.5	210.6	4.4	105.4
5	Eastern Lebanon County	16-	1-	1	0.686440	0.907186	0.416639	15.2	125.2	1.6	175.3
6	Lampeter Strasburg	12-	5-	0	0.681899	0.779661	0.562413	13.8	160.9	3.9	125.2
7	Donegal	14-	1-	3	0.678399	0.853293	0.464640	14.3	140.6	2.5	162.0
8	Susquehannock	13-	3-	0	0.672255	0.841772	0.465068	13.3	123.2	2.5	141.7
9	Northeastern	9-	5-	4	0.661827	0.706522	0.607201	13.0	187.2	5.4	121.1
10	Manheim Central	11-	6-	0	0.660247	0.731844	0.572740	13.1	165.4	4.8	123.4
11	Conrad Weiser	10-	6-	1	0.633615	0.649390	0.614335	10.7	177.9	5.8	111.7
12	Hershey	9-	8-	1	0.629082	0.630890	0.626873	12.1	200.9	7.1	119.6
13	Palmyra	9-	7-	2	0.628347	0.648936	0.603182	12.2	191.5	6.6	126.0
14	Bishop McDevitt	10-	4-	3	0.616187	0.685976	0.530891	11.3	161.6	5.2	142.8
15	Twin Valley	10-	8-	0	0.615023	0.635294	0.590246	10.8	182.2	6.2	126.5
16	Cocalico	8-	7-	2	0.599889	0.631579	0.561157	10.8	162.0	6.3	126.7
17	James Buchanan	10-	8-	0	0.596775	0.611111	0.579253	11.0	179.8	7.0	130.6
18	Gettysburg	10-	6-	0	0.583374	0.654321	0.496660	10.6	126.4	5.6	128.1
19	Berks Catholic	11-	7-	0	0.578439	0.617647	0.530519	10.5	156.5	6.5	138.5
20	Dover	10-	6-	0	0.568796	0.653846	0.464847	10.2	118.4	5.4	136.3
21	Red Land	6-	12-	0	0.546049	0.443038	0.671952	7.0	218.3	8.8	106.6
22	Spring Grove	6-	10-	2	0.542850	0.506024	0.587860	8.4	179.7	8.2	126.0
23	Susquehanna Township	9-	7-	1	0.523077	0.563187	0.474054	10.3	141.6	8.0	157.1
24	Garden Spot	6-	11-	0	0.518963	0.449704	0.603613	7.6	177.1	9.3	116.3
25	Solanco	6-	11-	1	0.487692	0.433333	0.554130	7.2	168.4	9.4	135.5
26	York Suburban	8-	9-	1	0.477770	0.500000	0.450600	8.4	131.4	8.4	160.2
27	Greencastle Antrim	5-	12-	1	0.470573	0.357988	0.608177	6.1	191.2	10.9	123.2
28	West York	5-	11-	0	0.429845	0.345070	0.533459	4.9	141.9	9.3	124.1
29	Big Spring	5-	11-	0	0.417983	0.348684	0.502680	5.3	140.7	9.9	139.2
30	West Perry	5-	13-	0	0.409710	0.286458	0.560350	5.5	172.7	13.7	135.5
31	Kennard Dale	4-	12-	1	0.374589	0.258929	0.515952	4.4	140.7	12.5	132.0
32	Shippensburg	1-	15-	2	0.352330	0.144578	0.606248	2.4	191.2	14.2	124.2
33	Milton Hershey	1-	17-	0	0.295456	0.070652	0.570216	1.3	171.4	17.1	129.2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Elco Girls’ Soccer

 Historical Achievements

 

Section Champions 2000, 2001, 2002, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017

District 3 Champions 2003