BY JEFF FALK

MANHEIM – Cautiously optimistic. Realistic idealism. Wide-open expecations.

That’s the approach with which the Elco girls’ soccer team entered this year’s Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs. Given how things played out, it was probably the correct way to go about it.

On a damp Saturday afternoon, on the turf of Manheim Central’s Elden Rettew Field, the Raiders were overmatched and outplayed by a talented Penn Manor club, during a 4-1 loss in the quarterfinal round of the L-L League tournament. Elco drew first blood, but the Raiders experienced difficulties generating much of an attack afterwards, in the face of the Comets’ unrelenting possession game.

It was a similar Lancaster-Lebanon League playoff result for the Raiders, who were making their seventh straight postseason appearance, after capturing their seventh straight L-L Section Three championship. Now 13-3 on the year, Elco will sport the second or third seed when it begins play in the District Three Class AAA postseason on October 25, at a site and time to be determined.

Penn Manor, the co-champion from Section One, moved to 14-3 overall and into Tuesday’s semifinal round of the L-L league playoffs.

“You go into it with the mindset that you can win it,” said Elco head coach Derek Fulk, of his side’s goals for the league postseason. “We also wanted to give a good showing. You don’t want to get destroyed, and we didn’t. I wouldn’t say we tempered our expectations coming in, but we were realistic.

“Usually, we have not fared well in the league playoffs,” continued Fulk. “When you’re a Section Three team and trying to compete with Section One and Section Two teams, you always know it’s going to be a tough battle. You know they’re not here for no reason. Traditionally, we have not fared the greatest in these playoffs.”

Despite being a bit of an underdog, it was the Raiders who scored first, on the first shot of the game, 7:22 into the match.

After an attacker was taken down in the box, Elco and sophomore forward Carsyn Boyer were awarded a penalty kick. Boyer made no mistakes, ripping a low shot with her left foot inside the right post.

“It might have been the worst thing we could’ve done, score first,” said Fulk. “It was kind of like waking up a giant. But our kids battled for 80 minutes. That’s all you can really ask. I’m proud of our kids.

“The league playoffs are always tough,” added Fulk. “We have a good league. You’re always going to play someone who has done something to get here. It is a tough draw. But you’re always going to get tough games in the league playoffs.”

Penn Manor responded two minutes later, with a pair of goals three minutes apart. Both tallies resulted from forced mistakes caused by the Comets applying offensive pressure.

Initially, Penn Manor’s Lilly Sugra played a ball from right to left that teammate Lauren Stoner was able to get a part of her body on and direct it into the net. Then, a giveaway resulted in a Carly Keene breakaway, and she buried the opportunity, with her right foot along the ground, inside the left post.

“They’re (the Comets) good and they played great,” said Fulk. “We had some lapses at times. You can’t make mistakes against good teams because they’re going to take advantage of them.

“Number 20 (Keene) up front is tough,” Fulk continued. “She’s fast. She caused us some problems. We made mistakes that came back to haunt us. But as a whole, I thought we defended pretty well.”

Keene netted two more goals in the second half to complete her hat trick.

Exactly 4:16 into the second session, Keene unleashed a hard right-footer that squirted through Elco goalkeeper Sam Nelson’s gloves and into the net. With 23:24 remaining, Keene accepted a short feed from teammate Carolyn Hinkle in the right corner and slid a right-footer short side.

“At halftime, we talked about being cleaner in what we were doing and just trying to play better,” said Fulk. “We wanted to worry more about us than them.

“It’s been a great season,” said Fulk. “We’ve dealt with a ton of adversity with injuries. I’m very proud of how we’ve been able to deal with them. Coming into the season, we expected to be at the top of the section and challenging for leagues and districts. It’s been a fantastic year for us.”

When the final stats had been tallied, Penn Manor out shot Elco 9-4. The Raiders enjoyed a 6-3 advantage in corner kicks.

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

2021 Elco Girls’ Soccer Results

Date	Opponents	Outcomes
9/04 10:00 am	Conrad Weiser at Elco	1 4	Nonleague
9/08 7:00 pm	Donegal at Elco	0 6	League
9/10 4:00 pm	Elco at Cocalico	2 1	League
9/14 7:00 pm	Lancaster Mennonite at Elco	0 6	League
9/16 7:00 pm	Octorara at Elco	0 8	League
9/18 7:00 pm	Elco at Cedar Crest	1 0	Nonleague
9/20 4:00 pm	Elco at Solanco	0 1	League
9/22 4:00 pm	Elco at Donegal	3 0	League
9/23 4:00 pm	Elco at Garden Spot		Postponed Nonleague
9/28 7:00 pm	Cocalico at Elco	0 1	League
9/30 5:15 pm	Elco at Lancaster Mennonite	4 0	League
10/01 4:00 pm	Elco at Berks Catholic	2 0	Nonleague
10/05 7:00 pm	Elco at Octorara	6 0	League
10/07 7:00 pm	Solanco at Elco	0 1	League
10/11 4:00 pm	Pottsville Area at Elco	1 2	Nonleague
10/13 4:00 pm	Wyomissing at Elco	3 1	Nonleague

PIAA District Three Class AAA Power Rankings

AAA	School	W	L	T	Rating	TWP	OWP	TWPW	OWPW	TWPL	OWPL
1	Greencastle Antrim	14-	1-	0	0.741319	0.954839	0.480351	14.80	125.90	0.70	136.20
2	Eastern Lebanon County	13-	2-	0	0.723027	0.875776	0.536333	14.10	126.95	2.00	109.75
3	Gettysburg	12-	2-	2	0.714204	0.861446	0.534241	14.30	133.40	2.30	116.30
4	Northern York	12-	3-	0	0.704834	0.817610	0.566997	13.00	154.45	2.90	117.95
5	Mechanicsburg	11-	3-	2	0.690229	0.829670	0.519800	15.10	135.20	3.10	124.90
6	Red Land	9-	5-	1	0.688755	0.746711	0.617921	11.35	165.85	3.85	102.55
7	Daniel Boone	13-	5-	0	0.677313	0.784211	0.546660	14.90	162.85	4.10	135.05
8	Lampeter Strasburg	12-	6-	0	0.671798	0.755319	0.569716	14.20	166.30	4.60	125.60
9	Palmyra	8-	5-	1	0.667905	0.713793	0.611819	10.35	158.40	4.15	100.50
10	Solanco	13-	4-	0	0.657050	0.805714	0.475348	14.10	126.30	3.40	139.40
11	Fleetwood	10-	7-	0	0.630863	0.658960	0.596522	11.40	171.50	5.90	116.00
12	Manheim Central	9-	7-	0	0.627051	0.673077	0.570796	10.50	148.35	5.10	111.55
13	West York	11-	5-	0	0.601195	0.713415	0.464038	11.70	113.55	4.70	131.15
14	Conrad Weiser	8-	8-	1	0.599169	0.588068	0.612737	10.35	178.00	7.25	112.50
15	South Western	8-	9-	0	0.594727	0.586826	0.604383	9.80	162.70	6.90	106.50
16	Cocalico	9-	8-	0	0.585447	0.605096	0.561433	9.50	151.25	6.20	118.15
17	Susquehannock	9-	7-	0	0.580925	0.598765	0.559120	9.70	149.90	6.50	118.20
18	West Perry	8-	7-	0	0.560302	0.567742	0.551209	8.80	145.85	6.70	118.75
19	Dover	6-	9-	1	0.511972	0.486014	0.543699	6.95	160.50	7.35	134.70
20	Twin Valley	5-	12-	1	0.495404	0.380000	0.636453	6.65	195.20	10.85	111.50
21	Octorara	7-	10-	0	0.487166	0.455621	0.525721	7.70	134.90	9.20	121.70
22	Garden Spot	4-	12-	0	0.462860	0.328767	0.626751	4.80	179.00	9.80	106.60
23	Susquehanna Township	5-	8-	0	0.457812	0.395683	0.533746	5.50	124.95	8.40	109.15
24	Shippensburg	4-	9-	0	0.449857	0.325203	0.602212	4.00	157.90	8.30	104.30
25	Berks Catholic	6-	11-	0	0.429470	0.298137	0.589989	4.80	163.25	11.30	113.45
26	Spring Grove	3-	13-	0	0.427513	0.264286	0.627013	3.70	171.30	10.30	101.90
27	Donegal	2-	13-	0	0.358433	0.145985	0.618090	2.00	147.60	11.70	91.20
28	York Suburban	2-	12-	0	0.345969	0.149254	0.586399	2.00	141.85	11.40	100.05
29	Big Spring	3-	13-	0	0.345403	0.183544	0.543231	2.90	143.25	12.90	120.45
30	East Pennsboro	1-	13-	1	0.340495	0.099359	0.635217	1.55	168.65	14.05	96.85
31	Milton Hershey	1-	12-	0	0.290394	0.099237	0.524030	1.30	124.30	11.80	112.90

Lancaster-Lebanon League

Section Three Standings

	League	Overall
	W	L	T	PCT	W	L	T	PCT	GS	GA
Elco	9	1	0	0.900	13	3	0	0.813	49	11
Cocalico	8	2	0	0.800	9	8	0	0.529	51	27
Solanco	7	3	0	0.700	13	4	0	0.765	42	15
Octorara	2	8	0	0.200	5	10	0	0.333	18	51
Lancaster Mennonite	2	8	0	0.200	2	11	0	0.154	8	34
Donegal	2	8	0	0.200	2	13	0	0.133	15	64

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