BY JEFF FALK

FREDERICKSBURG – It’s still early. Way too early to make generalizations, draw conclusions or make assumptions.

But fairly safe to say that if the Northern Lebanon girls’ soccer team performs every time out like it did last night, the Vikings will end up with the type of  season they’re seeking.

For the Annville-Cleona side, the good news is that plenty of season remains.

On Tuesday evening at Fred Gahres Stadium, the Vikings took a positive step in the right direction with a convincing 3-0 whitewashing of the Little Dutchmen. Northern Lebanon notched two of its goals during a seven-minute span in the middle of the first half – both by Bri Seip – and active Viking keeper Holly Rittle registered five saves to log the shutout.

Jess Batz added a pair of assists to the Viking cause. But perhaps just as important was the defensive job Northern Lebanon senior Megan Brandt did shadowing Annville-Cleona forward Reagan Hess, the most prolific goal scorer in the history of Lebanon County girls’ soccer.

The contest served as the Lancaster-Lebanon Section Three opener for both squads.

It was a welcomed outcome for Northern Lebanon, which was coming off a 6-11 campaign in 2015 and a 2-0 season-opening defeat at the hands of Wyomissing. After going 14-8 last year, the Little Dutchmen are now off to a 1-1 start.

“We played well,” said Northern Lebanon head coach Lindsey Rayman. “It was 3-0. We had to have done something right.

“The expectations were we wanted to win,” continued Rayman. “It was our first league game. We want to go postseason. We wanted to score some goals, which obviously we did. We wanted to shut down Reagan, which obviously we did. We had a game plan and it worked.”

“We are better individually than we played tonight,” said Annville-Cleona rookie head coach John Myers. “We are better as a team than we played tonight. We need to get better by our next game.”

It was some hard work down the left sidelines by Jess Batz that produced the Vikings’ first goal, 15 minutes into the match.

Warding off her defender, Batz used her left foot to cross the ball sharply across the Annville-Cleona goal mouth. Seip was where she was supposed to be – unmarked – and she simply touched the ball past Little Dutchmen keeper Anna Soliday.

“Not really,” said Rayman, when asked if there was a commonality in her team’s goals. “We’ve been working to finish our opportunities. We finished three of them. I would’ve liked to have scored some more, but I’ll take it.

“I thought our play was actually similar to the Wyomissing game,” Rayman continued. “I don’t think it got better. Against Wyomissing, we just didn’t finish our opportunities. I felt like we were the better team against Wyomissing. We just got the job done today.”

“The smart answer is: They (the Vikings) scored on us and we didn’t score on them,” said Myers. “But we just need to possess the ball better. That’s it.”

Seip made it 2-0 Northern Lebanon 17:31 before the break.

This time Jenna Wentling found Seip all alone, one-on-one with Soliday in the Little Dutchmen goal crease. Seip used her left foot to slide the ball to the right post.

“It was good to come back from a loss and it was nice to beat Annville-Cleona at home,” said Rayman. “This is, by far, the best team I’ve seen at Northern Lebanon since I’ve been here. Our leadership is awesome. Our team chemistry is tops.”

“They’ve got fast strikers,” said Myers of the Vikings. “Number 22 (Seip) is a tough player. And they’ve got a strong defensive line.”

Northern Lebanon all but settled the affair with Cassiah Ray’s goal 17:38 into the second half. The play originated from the right side of the field, as Batz slipped a feed on to Ray’s right foot, and Ray made no mistakes.

“Our goal is to go to postseason,” said Rayman. “We have the talent to get it done, especially in league games.

“A difference from last year is that they (her players) actually believe they can go to postseason,” added Rayman. “We’ve just got to get it done on the field. We’ve got to finish chances. Scoring goals, that’s what we’ve got to do. And defend as a team.”

“We want to win on Friday,” said Myers of his team’s goals. “We’re looking one game at a time.”

But while the Vikings were efficient and opportunistic offensively, it may have been an early defensive play that set the tone for their performance.

Three minutes into the game, a through-ball sent Hess in alone on Rittle. But Rittle charged off her mark, slid and stoned Hess from point-blank range.

“We had to make some adjustments due to their personnel,” said Rayman. “We had to pull Megan Brandt back to our defense. But that moved Cassiah Ray to midfield, and she scored a goal.

“That’s (marking Hess) Megan Brandt’s job,” added Rayman. “If they haven’t figured that out yet, something’s wrong. We can’t move it around the back like we’d like to. But then we’ve got to focus up top.”

“That’s not our game,” said Myers of Northern Lebanon’s focus on Hess. “So they can do that if they want to. That’s not our game. Reagan is graduating.

“Possession is the difference (from a 7-0, season-opening win over Lancaster Country Day),” added Myers. “Good touches. Good passes and possession. We didn’t do it tonight.”

Northern Lebanon out shot Annville-Cleona 8-3 over the second 40 minutes of play, and 12-8 for the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To  purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to view more go to www.http://lebanonsportsbuzz.com/gallery-11/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2016 Annville-Cleona Girls’ Soccer Schedule