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Mike Ream's infectious passion, love and respect for lacrosse helped shape the sport into what it is today in Lancaster County.

So the sudden death of the Ephrata High School coach is leaving many in the lacrosse community thankful for his contributions to the sport.

Ream, the Mountaineers' head coach for eight seasons, passed away Monday night due to a massive heart attack.

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The Ephrata track & Field teams both came home from Solanco on Monday with season opening victories. While the Lady Mounts dominated the girls from Quarryville, 106-44, the Mount boys had to scrap until the end, winning 80-69.

Finding themselves in a 41-23 hole, the boys went on a 39-3 run over a span of five events and garnered enough points in the other remaining events to claim victory.

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A pair of Ephrata bowlers capped outstanding high school seasons this past weekend at the State High School Bowling Championships held at ABC North Lanes in Harrisburg.

Junior Justin Eberhart, who was LL League runner-up and the fourth-place finisher at Districts, closed out the season with a solid fourth-place finish at States. Leid, a sophomore, went on to place 10th in the girls competition.

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Ephrata freshman swimmer Kylee Parsons competed at the PIAA State Swimming Championships this past week at Bucknell University.

Parsons, the gold medal winner at the LL League meet in the 200 free, competed in that event as well as the 100 free.

In the 200 free preliminaries, she turned in a time of 1:56.25 but did not make the finals, finishing 25th overall. In the 100 free prelims, her time of 53.36 was good enough for 17th place but again left her out of the finals race.

Jaime Malandra of Parkland won the gold medal in the woo free with a time of 1:49.42, while Hershey's Kathleen Nolan captured the 100 free championship with a time of 50.00.

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Ephrata's freshman sensation Kylee Parsons will make her first trek to the State meet following a double medal individual performance this past weekend at the District Three Swimming Championships held at Cumberland Valley High School.

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Ephrata will have a pair of representatives at the PA State Bowling Championships March 13-14 at the ABC Lances in Harrisburg.

Sophomore Christina Leid and junior Justin Eberhart both qualified for States with impressive performances at the Eastern PA Regional Championships held this past weekend at Jordan Lanes in Allentown.

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The Ephrata track & field teams will open their 2007 campaign this Thursday as they travel to Elizabethtown for a Section Two battle with the Bears. There is plenty of optimism at the track for the upcoming season.

The girl's team is coming off a stellar 8-1 performance of a year ago, and look to be just as competitive as the season past. Led by junior Brynn Lyons, who will compete in the long jump, javelin, 400 meters and 800 meters, the Lady Mounts must overcome what Head Coach John Keller calls "a small team."

"The numbers are just not there this season" said Keller. "It will take a total team effort for the girls to enjoy the same success."

While Keller may be a little light on his predictions, there seems to be some talent in the girl's locker room. Joining Lyons is a strong group of distance and middle distance runners. The trio of senior Alicia Harbold, sophomore Dana Haas and Junior Sam Fink will join Lyons and give the Lady Mounts a formidable 4x800m relay team; they also will give Keller options from the 400m right through the 3200m.

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The Ephrata Girls' Soccer team started the season off with a convincing 5-2 win over the visiting Cocalico Eagles in a night match at War Memorial Field. The Lady Mounts spread the scoring out, with all five goals coming from five different players and five assists coming from four different players.

Emily Beamesderfer got the scoring started in the 16th minute scoring off a corner from Leah Sipe, wearing the #5 jersey. Arielle Gordon added the Mounts' second goal less than four minutes later, again off a corner from Sipe. Alma Wilson cleaned up the trash in front of the goal off a cross from Claire Woolley for the Mounts' third goal in the 34th minute. Gordon added an assist less than three minutes later, leading Aly Goodman for a breakaway goal. Leah Sipe finished up the Mounts' scoring 11 seconds into the second half off a bang bang play with Goodman.

The Lady Mounts' continue their season on Thursday (3/29) in an afternoon game at Solanco.

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As winter turns to spring and fields begin to thaw, March is the time of year when optimism runs high in every camp.

Dreams and goals are set and they are now on the verge of being played out.

Certainly, it's the most exciting part of the season as teams prepare for opening day.

And for the Ephrata Mounts soccer team, with special dreams of their own, they can't wait to get going.

Ephrata, which reached the L-L League playoffs as well as Districts a year ago, enters the 2007 campaign with as much potential as any Lady Mount team since Head Coach Chris Dutton took over the helm several years ago.

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Merv Witmer doesn't really know the whens or the whys. He says he just knew it was time to do something else.

So earlier this year, Witmer, a 37-year educator, administrator and long-time coach set the ball in motion, making the 2006-07 school year his last.

And Monday night at the monthly Ephrata school board meeting, it all became official as the board approved his retirement as Director of student Athletics/Activities, effective, June 30th.

"I can't answer that," Witmer said tuesday afternoon when asked why he decided to retire at this time. "I just got to thinking about it in the last year or two. No one thing happened that made me come to this decision. There's a time for everything and I just decided it was time to do something else."

What that is, he's not exactly sure.

"I'm open to anything," he said. "I don't have any set goals or anything. I'll probably do some volunteer work but really, I'm just ready to do something else."

Witmer has been Director of Student Athletics/Activities for the last 15 years at the school and has taught at Ephrata for the last 34 years.

In addition, he was a well-respected coach at Ephrata. He was the head wrestling coach for much of his 33 years in the program and built one of the top programs in the District Three through much of the 80s and 90s.

He also assisted in track and field for a few years and coached football for 22 years, including a seven-year stint as head coach from 1983 to 1989. His 1987 team was the last championship squad at Ephrata, having captured the Section Two title with a 9-1 league mark.

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The Ephrata Recreation Center Midget Football Booster Club is having a fundraiser dance on Saturday, March 17th. The dance features the local band Sofa King who will play from 9PM to 1AM at the Ephrata American Legion (you must be 21 to attend).

Tickets will be available prior to the dance for $10; you can purchase at the door for $12. There will be games, prizes, snacks and drink specials during the evening with the doors opening at 8:30 PM.

You can purchase tickets at the Ephrata Rec Center, the Ephrata American Legion or from board members of the booster club. So if you had a great time last year... come back! If you couldn't make last year's dance, come and see what you missed! 

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The 2007 high school football season will be the last for Ephrata's longtime Head Coach Ken Grove.

The likable 17-year coach, whose record through recent years (2-8 last season and 5-6 the two previous years) has sparked some community criticism, recently sent a letter addressed to the Ephrata Administration and school board stating his desire to step down following next season.

That wish is expected to be granted and become official at the February 26 Ephrata school board meeting.

In an exclusive interview conducted Monday by The Review, Grove, who has a career record of 79-94-3 at Ephrata, explained his reasons for making the decision now to end his career after next season.

"Part of the reason for the decision now was to focus on this season and what's in front of us. There will be no distractions," he said. "The seniors who I talked to were appreciative of that because that was part of my reasoning for when I made the announcement. I wanted the focus next year to be solely on them. The underclassmen, it might be a little different for them because they are going to eventually get somebody new, but the seniors who I talked to were very happy with that. The other big part of that also is my expectations and theirs of winning. They expect to win, but that's always." 

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Elizabethtown's Zach Lokey blasted five goals Friday night to lead the Bears to an 8-3 (boxscore) win over Ephrata at the Lancaster Ice Rink in a Central Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League Tier II Viola Cup playoff game.

With the win, E-town advances to play Muhlenberg, a 6-4 winner over Cedar Crest, for the Lancaster- Lebanon- Berks Championship Monday night at a time and place to be determined. The championship game is also a semifinal game of the Viola Cup.

 The loss eliminated the defending Viola Cup Champions from the playoffs.

Tom Dombrosky, Dillon Filepas and Alex Reinhold also scored for the Bears. Brandon Pike, Sam Wiest and Tim Wanner had goals for the Mounts. The Mounts were playing their third straight game without Shane Allen who was serving  suspension carried over from the last regular season Lampeter-Strasburg game.

The Bears took a 2-0 lead going into the 2nd period and stetched it to 4-0, before Brandon Pike answered for the Mounts with 5:36 left in the 2nd. A minute later Lokey scored his 3rd goal fo the game to give the Bears a 5-1 lead heading into the 3rd period. From their E-town maintained their lead outscoring the Mounts 3-2, including Lokey's last two goals.

In the net, Mitchell Reinhold made 30 saves for E-town and Devon Williams had 28 saves for Ephrata.

Individual, some Mounts will still be playing as Brandon Pike and Devon Williams will be playing in the senior game at Twin Ponds East with action starting at 3:00. Preceding that game will be the junior game featuring Tim Wanner and Chris Lyons, that game also at Twin Ponds East (directions ) will start at 2:00. Congratulations to those four Mounts and good luck. 

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Ephrata High School senior Chelsea Weik put an exclamation point on her team's season with a 258 final game to lead the Mountaineers to their second straight Pennsylvania State Team Bowling Championship.

After the preliminary rounds on Saturday, the Ephrata girls climbed into first place, qualifying for the finals Sunday at AMF Rocky Springs Lanes.

Ephrata is paced by seniors Weik and Ashlee Eberhart, with underclassman Caitlin Edwards, Christine Gummel and Ashley Snyder.

Of their team's success, Weik simply said, "We bonded. We are bowling and having fun being friends and teammates. We practiced really hard to get where we are. Our parents have supported us through everything."

Eberhart agreed. "We supported each other," she said, "and our goal is to win."

This comes on the heels of three Ephrata girls earning individual medals on Saturday at Dutch Lanes --Samantha Santoro, second; Chelsea Weik, third and Ashlee Eberhart, fifth.

"We talked about repeating after we won the championship last year. I knew we had the ability and I was more confident this year when we reached the finals," said Ephrata head coach Sean Garman.

With over hundred parents and fans cheering them on, the Ephrata girls approached the finals with the confidence that they had been there just one year before -- and were returning the same team.

In the team championship match, the Mountaineers pounded out a 1074 game (214 average per girl) against Midd-West team's 893.

The 1074 game was the top team single rolled in the state team tourney, which consisted of 36 girls' teams and 42 boys' teams.

The Ephrata's team individual scores included: Ashlee Eberhart 209, Caitlin Edwards 221, Ashley Snyder 184, Christine Gummel 202 and Weik 258.

"When she is competing, she is confident and focused and really has a strong desire to win," Eberhart said of Weik.

Of his anchor bowler, the coach said that she rises to the occasion.

"She'll usually pick out the other team's best bowler and try to match up with her," said Garman.

The Ephrata girls' final team game was higher than any boys' teams by more than 100 pins -- the highest boys' team score was 970.

Pennsylvania State Team Championship results:

(Girls) 1. Ephrata, 2. Midd-West, 3. Penn Hills, 4. Chartiers Valley, 5. Gateway, other county teams finishes - 33. Columbia 3341.

(Boys) 1. Selinsgrove, 2. Penn Trafford, 3. Mifflinburg, 4. Penn Hills, 5. L-S. other L-L team finishes -14. Manheim Township, 22. Penn Manor, 32. Warwick, 37. Annville Cleona, 39. Garden Spot, 40. Columbia.

At the 2005 Pennsylvania Bowling Championships, Ashlee Eberhart received a silver medal for the second high single game of the tournament. Caitlin Edwards received a plaque and a medal for sixth place in average and was selected as a member of the All-State Second Team. Chelsea Weik received a plaque and a medal for fourth place in average and was selected as a member of the All-State First Team.

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Three of the top five finishers in the girls' singles competition of the state High School Bowling Championships came from Ephrata, which has a herd of thoroughbred bowlers.

Samantha Santoro, who was the Lancaster-Lebanon League singles champion, finished second, Chelsea Weik finished third and Ashlee Eberhart finished fifth. The threesome will receive medals today at Rocky Springs Lanes, following the team competitions.

The singles tournament pitted Ephrata girls against each other in two rounds of the stepladder finals, held Saturday night at Dutch Lanes.

In the first match, fourth-place qualifier Eberhart was edged by fifth-place qualifier Santoro. The match came down to the last frame, with Santoro rolling a 210 to Eberhart's 200.

Santoro edged third-place qualifier Tiffany Shubrooks of Conrad Weiser in a nail-biting match that also came down to the final frame. The score was 161 to 152, with Santoro advancing. Santoro then defeated second-place qualifier Weik by a score of 188 to 156.

In the final match, Santoro took on a tough competitor from Oley Valley, Jen Bitler, who notched a 202 to Santoro's 184.

Individual results:

Girls -- 1. Jen Bitler, Oley Valley; 2. Samantha Santoro, Ephrata; 3. Chelsea Weik, Ephrata; 4. Tiffany Shubrooks, Conrad Weiser; 5. Ashlee Eberhart, Ephrata.

Boys -- 1. Travis Celmer, Conrad Weiser; 2. Craig Newham, Penn Hills; 3. Andrew Rubin, Bensalem; 4. Jayson Ulrich, Governor Mifflin; 5. Mario Parenti, Schuylkill Valley. Other top L-L finishers -- 8. Mark Haney, Penn Manor; 10. David Gerhart, Manheim Township; 11. Todd Sigeti, Warwick.

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Two Ephrata seniors completed their scholastic swimming careers this past weekend. Ephrata's Megan Royer tied for tenth place in the 50 freestyle event with a time of 24.41. She also finished in 30th place in the 100 Yard Freestyle Event.

Fellow senior Justin Brown, who lost most of the year to an ankle injury, finished his career with a 22nd place finish in the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.12. Brown will swim next year at the collegiate level for Towson University.

Congratulations to both.

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Scouting reports were minimal, so the Ephrata High School hockey team wasn't sure what to expect when it met Kennard-Dale in the biggest game in the Mounts' hockey history.

Ephrata's players had seen the Rams' scores in the paper and on the internet.

But was that enough of a read?

Where there might have been mystery, there was soon swift evidence that Ephrata was a far superior team to their opponents from York County.

Having many more skilled players, Ephrata blew out Kennard-Dale 10-1 to win its first Viola Cup, emblematic of the Central Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League's Tier II championship Friday night at the Hersheypark Arena.

Ephrata junior Shane Allen scored five goals and teammate Brandon Pike had two goals and five assists in leading the Mounts to the rout.

Ephrata's Jeff Bohler helped set the tone in the first game. His check on Kennard-Dale leading scorer Beau Roeder behind the Ephrata net enabled Pike to grab the puck and feed Allen, who scored on a breakaway 3:30 into the game.

"We wanted to score that first goal,'' Allen said. "Then we started getting more and more, so it worked out for us.''

Allen and Pike made for a particularly lethal combination. Pike assisted on four of Allen's five goals.

"We've played together for so long,'' said Allen, "street hockey, ice hockey, whatever.''

Ephrata scored four goals in the first period and K-D managed only five shots, the first of which didn't come until nine and a half minutes into the game. One of Ephrata's goals heading into the game was to keep the Rams' shots to a minimum because Sam Wiest was playing his first game of the season in net.

"The whole team played amazingly,'' said Wiest, who was subbing for Devon Williams. "It was the best defense I've seen all year.''

Wiest finished with 17 saves. Ephrata, meanwhile, unleashed a 50-shot barrage on K-D goalie Greg Kemp.

Ephrata pushed its lead to 8-0 before Jeff Hartman scored the Rams' lone goal in the final minute of the second period. But with the Mounts enjoying a seven-goal lead, the third period was played with a running clock.

"It feels great,'' said Jeremy Martin, one of only three Ephrata seniors. "We've never gotten farther than the first round so this feels great.''

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The Ephrata Mounts Hockey team wants to take that last step to grab a prize it's had its eye on all season.

Ephrata, which is riding a 12-game non-losing streak, wants to stay on a roll. The Mounts will play Kennard-Dale for the Tier II title at 6:45 p.m., at the Hersheypark Arena (directions).

Ephrata, however, will have to win it without goaltender Devon Williams, who was declared academically ineligible for the game. Sam Wiest, a forward, will don the pads in place of Williams.

Ephrata's Wiest isn't totally unfamiliar with goaltending. He was a goaltender for a short period of time several years ago. This time, though, he's stepping up in competition and in game importance.

The Mounts will go into the game trying to do what they did against Cedar Crest, namely, keep the opposition's scoring chances to a minimum. In that game, Cedar Crest managed only 18 shots.

"Our goal is to take a two- or three-goal lead and then play a trap,'' said Ephrata coach Keith Allen. "We have to come out aggressively right away.''

Any mention of Kennard-Dale's team certainly includes the name Beau Roeder. Roeder has 10 goals in just three playoff games. He scored four times in K-D's 10-4 win over Red Land last Friday, propelling the Rams into this Viola Cup game.

With Wiest's inexperience in net, Allen will continue to skate Jeff Bohler on defense instead of at forward.

"Jeff makes things happen and stops things from happening,'' Allen said.

While K-D (12-4, 3-0) overwhelmed Red Land, it needed a goal from Jeff Hartman with 39 seconds left in regulation to beat York Suburban 4-3 in the York Division title game.

Kennard-Dale has reached the Tier II title game in only its second CPIHL season. The Rams were 4-12 last season.

Greg Kemp is the Rams' goalie. He's averaged 34 saves in K-D's three playoff games.

Ephrata (14-1-1, 3-0) is led by juniors Shane Allen and Brandon Pike. Allen scored the game-winning goal in the third period against Cedar Crest last week in the Lancaster/Lebanon/Berks Division title game.

Allen (38 goals, 27 assists, 65 points) and Pike (38, 25, 63) ranked third and fourth, respectively, in scoring in Tier II during the regular season. Allen has three post-season goals and six assists. Pike has four goals and four assists in the playoffs.

"We have some horsepower,'' Keith Allen said.

Ephrata's Megan Royer finished third in the girls' 50 Yard Freestyle and Justin Brown placed fourth in the boy's 50 Yard Freestyle at the District Three Championships on Friday, qualifying the pair for the PIAA Championships held this year at Bucknell University March 14th through the 18th.

Missing the cut for States were Dereck Fritz, who finished 10th in the 200 Yard Freestyle, and 12th in the 100 Yard Freestyle. Megan Royer also finished 7th in the 100 Yard Freestyle, and Amber Davies, who finished 9th in the 100 Yard Butterfly and 18th in the 100 Yard Backstroke. The girls 200 yard Medley Relay team also placed 7th. The 200 Yard Freestyle Relay team finished 9th.

Good Luck to Megan and Justin at States!

Ephrata took the early lead early with a goal by Kyle Sauder and beat Cedar Crest 2-1 at the Lancaster Ice Rink to win the Commissioner's Cup and the CPIHL Lancaster/Lebanon/Berks championship.

The Falcons tied it up within three minutes in the second with a goal from Derek Spitler, assisted by Wyatt Earp.

The Mounts responded 10 minutes later with a goal from Shane Allen, assisted by Jeremy Martin.

Ephrata kept the Falcon goalie busy as well. Cedar Crest's Philip Petena made 32 saves off 34 shots while Ephrata's Devon Williams made 17 saves on 18 shots.

The Mounts will face Kennard-Dale next for the Viola Cup and the Tier 2 championship, next Friday at the Hersheypark Arena (directions). Kennard-Dale, the York champion, defeated Mid-Penn champion Red Land, 10-4, Friday night.