BY JEFF FALK

SOUTH LEBANON – There’s a lot of cool stuff about championships. Defending them is right near the top of that list.

Right now, the Cedar Crest girls’ soccer team is fighting tooth-and-nail just for the opportunity to defend their Lancaster-Lebanon League titles.

On Thursday afternoon, on the artificial turf of Ed and Jeannie Arnold Field at Earl Boltz Stadium, the Falcons took a momentary break from their struggle to reach the league playoffs, by hosting Section Two power Elizabethtown in a non-league match. Cedar Crest experienced difficulties generating offense throughout, and dropped a 1-0 decision to the Bears.

With three section matches remaining on its regular-season docket, Cedar Crest, which currently occupies fourth-place in Section One, may have to win out just for an opportunity to defend its back-to-back Lancaster-Lebanon League championships. The Falcons, who currently sit in the 20th spot in the District Three Class AAA power rankings, slipped to 6-6-2 on the year.

Elizabethtown improved to 12-2-1 overall.

“Oh yeah, it’s one of our goals,” said Cedar Crest head coach Lauren King. “We’re going to try, but we’re going to have to win to have a chance at the league playoffs. They (her players) said they want to defend the title. I just want to get in and have a chance. Right now, it seems like we’re gassed. And we have a couple of starters hurt.

“We have three games left,” continued King. “We have to win at least two of them, and probably win out. But the section’s pretty crazy right now.”

Though the Falcons probably played well enough defensively to earn a win against E-town yesterday, they did relinquish the match’s only goal, 13:34 into the first half. It came on the Bears’ initial shot of the game.

Elizabethtown’s Jamie Marsico played a ball to teammate Maddie Mohr in the middle of the field, at the top of the box. Mohr took a couple of touches to elude a Falcon defender and create space for herself, then launched a 25-yard right-footer into the top left-hand corner of the net.

“We knew 7 (Mohr) was dangerous,” said King. “We gave her too much time. It was a beautiful shot. She was good. (Goalkeeper) Emma Peeler didn’t have a chance on it.

“We didn’t play well at all,” continued King. “We didn’t deserve to win there. We were like this on Tuesday against Warwick. For the season, we’ve been up and down.”

Cedar Crest managed only a single shot in each of the two halves – and just one of those was the result of a dangerous opportunity.

That came nine minutes into a scoreless game, when Kayla Krall carried the ball hard down the right sideline. Krall crossed the ball perfectly into the E-town goal mouth, and right on to the head of fellow Falcon Becca Robins.

Unmarked, Robins’ header sailed just over the crossbar.

“We couldn’t get attack,” said King. “I don’t think any of our offensive players had a good game. We couldn’t find feet. We couldn’t connect passes. The first ten minutes was great, and that was it.

“We started the season slow,” added King, “but we’ve been playing better offensively.”

Elizabethtown unleashed seven of its ten shots during the second half, but couldn’t beat Peeler to add insurance. The Bears took four corner kicks to Cedar Crest’s three.

“I think they are an average team,” said King of the Bears. “They’re nothing outstanding. They’re solid, but we’ve seen better teams and played better against them.

“This would’ve helped us for districts,” King added. “We’re right on the line. And it would’ve helped with our overall record. We definitely need to be starting games better, and playing 80 minutes. We’re still pushing for districts. We have a chance.”

Lancaster-Lebanon League

    Section One

 

TEAM	LEAGUE	OVERALL
Hempfield	7-2	11-3
Manheim Twp.	6-2-1	8-4-1
Penn Manor	5-2-2	7-5-3
Cedar Crest	3-4-2	6-6-2
Conestoga Valley	3-4-2	5-6-2
Warwick	3-5-1	5-8-1
McCaskey	0-8	1-12-1

SECTION 1
SCORING LEADERS
Brianna Bracero, Manheim Twp. — 7 goals — 14 points
Rebecca Robins, Cedar Crest — 5 goals, 3 assists — 13 points
Maddie Schwartz, Hempfield — 6 goals — 12 points
Marah Foltz, Hempfield — 4 goals, 4 assists — 12 points
Carolyn Weber, Penn Manor — 5 goals — 10 points
Alison Heckman, Manheim Twp. — 3 goals, 4 assists — 10 points
Taylor Diamond, Manheim Twp. — 4 goals, 1 assist — 9 points
Sammy Helgeson, Hempfield — 3 goals, 2 assists — 8 points
Aubry Suydam, Manheim Twp. — 3 goals, 2 assists — 8 points
Samara Yurchak, Conestoga Valley — 4 goals — 8 points
Sam Machim, Warwick — 4 goals — 8 points
Kirsten Gibson, Penn Manor — 2 goals, 3 assists — 7 points
Abby Bomberger, Warwick — 3 goals, 1 assist — 7 points
Giana Yurchak, Conestoga Valley — 3 goals, 1 assist — 7 points
Carley Gurdak, Manheim Twp. — 2 goals, 2 assists — 6 points
GOALIES
Erin Davidson, Penn Manor — 8 games, 1 goal against, 0.13 average
Christine Allison, Manheim Twp. — 7 games, 1 goal against, 0.14 average
Abby Schlegelmilch, Penn Manor — 8 games, 3 goals against, 0.38 average
Katy Hollinger, Manheim Twp. — 7 games, 5 goals against, 0.72 average
McKenna Zerbe, Hempfield — 8 games, 7 goals against, 0.88 average
Emma Peeler, Cedar Crest — 8 games, 9 goals against, 1.12 average
Taylor Gonzaeles, Warwick — 8 games, 16 goals against, 2.00 average

 

District Three Class AAA

 Power Rankings

School W L T
1 Cumberland Valley 11 0 2 .806663
2 Hershey 12 1 0 .797658
3 Lower Dauphin 9 1 0 .797356
4 Central York 12 1 0 .758468
5 Hempfield 10 3 0 .746495
6 Wilson West Lawn 10 3 0 .741341
7 Red Land 8 3 0 .731676
8 Mechanicsburg 9 3 1 .710491
9 Elizabethtown 9 2 1 .707254
10 Waynesboro 11 1 1 .706438
11 Dallastown 10 3 0 .706226
12 Manheim Township 7 3 1 .706052
13 Dover 10 2 0 .696575
14 Cedar Cliff 8 3 1 .695970
15 Ephrata 9 3 1 .672040
16 Governor Mifflin 8 5 0 .663313
17 Penn Manor 7 4 3 .655653
18 Daniel Boone 8 4 0 .649263
19 Cocalico 6 3 3 .635173
20 Cedar Crest 5 5 2 .613052
21 Central Dauphin 5 5 0 .610630
22 Carlisle 6 6 0 .609078
23 Warwick 5 6 1 .583195
24 Muhlenberg 7 7 0 .581038
25 Conestoga Valley 4 6 2 .569527
26 Palmyra 5 7 0 .551086
27 Red Lion 6 7 0 .549061
28 Lampeter Strasburg 5 8 0 .529887
29 Exeter Township 5 8 0 .526429
30 Garden Spot 4 8 0 .479857
31 South Western 4 8 0 .477266
32 Chambersburg 3 10 0 .467329
33 Shippensburg 3 10 0 .407858
34 Central Dauphin East 2 9 0 .398964
35 Reading 3 9 1 .393279
36 Spring Grove 1 11 0 .353119
37 Solanco 1 10 0 .347332
38 J P McCaskey 1 11 1 .345838
39 Lebanon 1 11 0 .313616
40 New Oxford 1 11 0 .305962
41 York CDS 1 7 1 .239427