BY JEFF FALK

HERSHEY – Sixteen shutouts in 21 games.

An undefeated record.

A Lancaster-Lebanon Section Three championship.

A Lancaster-Lebanon League title.

And now a District Three Class AA crown.

This version of the Elco girls’ soccer team may or may not be the best in school history and one of the best Lebanon County has ever produced. But the Raiders are definitely in the conversation.

On a windy Saturday afternoon at Hersheypark Stadium, Elco stoked that discussion by downing Boiling Springs 1-0 in the District Three Class AA championship game. The only goal of the game was netted by Raider stalwart Ryelle Shuey, off a restart in the middle of the first half.

With the triumph, second-seeded Elco moved to 20-0-1 overall. As District Three champions, Elco will open competition in the PIAA Class AA playoffs on Tuesday, somewhere in District Three, against the runner-up out of District Four.

The result dropped top-seeded Boiling Spings to 17-3 on the year.

The District Three title was Elco’s first since 2003 and second overall, in 26 years of competing in girls’ soccer. It was also the Raiders’ fifth District Three finals appearance.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of some of those better teams, and there’s certainly been some good ones at Elco,” said Raider head coach Derek Fulk, humbly downplaying his club’s accomplishments. “These guys have to rank right up there with them. But a lot of those (past teams) were playing bigger schools, because they didn’t have classifications then.

“I think (at the beginning of the season) we knew we had the possibility to be this good, with what we had coming back,” continued Fulk. “We thought we had people who could step in and contribute. It’s not like we’re getting it all from the senior class.”

“It says we work really well together,” said Elco senior sweeper and captain Julia Nelson, of the Raiders’ laundry list of accomplishments. “Even when we don’t play our best, we find a way. At the beginning of the season, we thought we were going to go really far. We believed then and we trusted our coaches. And we have gotten amazing community support.”

The Raiders certainly enjoyed the better of the play throughout. But they needed a goal from the dangerous Shuey to ultimately raise the trophy.

With 16:24 left before halftime, Shuey lined up a 30-yard direct kick from the middle of the pitch, but just before she was about to strike the ball, a gust of wind blew it off its spot. Shuey didn’t flinch and unleashed a hard right-footer around the Boiling Springs wall to the right portion of the Bubbler net  – the pace of which seemed to surprise keeper Becca Becker, who got gloves on the shot, but not enough to keep it out.

Shuey now has a team-high 22 goals this season.

“Rye’s Rye,” said Fulk. “She’s always doing something to surprise me. She works hard and does all the little things. She does it all.

“It (Shuey’s shot) lookd like it dipped and hit the ground,” Fulk continued. “It looked like it did something. It was crazy.”

“She always finds a good place to shoot,” said Nelson of Shuey. “It looked like the ball took a bounce and the goalie wasn’t ready.”

Defensively, Elco made Shuey’s goal stand up by being aggressive in the midfield and seemingly winning every skirmish in its own end of the field.  The Raiders held the Bubblers to just a pair of second-half shots, after Boiling Springs had clanged a restart off the Elco cross bar 19:36 into the contest.

“Yeah, I’m happy with the way we played,” said Fulk. “We defended really well, which we have been doing all year. I thought maybe we could’ve put away a couple of more chances in the first half. I thought it could’ve been 2-0 or 3-0 at halftime. But we’ll take it.

“It’s not the first game we had like this,” added Fulk. “We had some tough games in the league playoffs and grinded a little bit.”

“We didn’t play as well as we hoped,” said Nelson. “But we played together, as a team. That really helps us. We’re strong from offense to defense to (goalie) Maddie Bailey.”

In the final count, Elco out shot Boiling Springs 9-3. Boiling Springs enjoyed a 3-1 margin in corner kicks.

Bailey logged the shutout.

“We defended well,” said Fulk. “I was concerned at halftime about them (the Bubblers) getting the wind in the second half. When Maddie’s had to come up with some saves, she’s come up with them.

“This means a lot to us,” Fulk added. “It means a lot for our program.”

“We’re thrilled because it’s the next step in our season,” said Nelson. “They’re (the league and district championships) both super exciting. It was insane winning the league. Now we want to keep going.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2018 Elco Girls’ Soccer Results