It’s one of the theorems of geometry, if A equals B and B equals C, then A must equal C.
Which held true Tuesday evening in the semifinals of the Lancaster-Lebanon League girls soccer playoffs.
Last Wednesday, Cocalico defeated Ephrata 3-0 in a non-league match 3-0. Saturday, Hempfield bested Cocalico, albeit in penalty kicks after 110 scoreless minutes. So it would be logical to assume, when they met, Hempfield would defeat Ephrata.
Ephrata football coach and teacher Kris Miller had Angel Collazo as a student in the classroom as a freshman and on the football field as a sophomore. Miller recalls Collazo lacking confidence in both of those years.
Then the breakthrough for Collazo came as a junior in Week Two of last season, when he intercepted a pass and later had a long touchdown reception in a win over Warwick.
“At that moment, he realized he belonged on the high school football field,” Miller said.
Persistence, thy name is Bella Pratt.
The Ephrata junior midfielder’s ninth and 10th goals of the year were monuments to persistence as she paced the Mountaineers to a 4-0 girls soccer victory over Manheim Central on Monday night at the Barons’ Rettew Stadium.
Pratt broke the scoring ice in the 24th minute of the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Two game, staying on the ball after Barons keeper Lexi Wettig initially broke up her attack.
Last week was a banner one for the Ephrata girls volleyball team. The Mountaineers started off with a thrilling reverse sweep of Exeter Township on Sept. 30, coming back from a 2-0 deficit to win the nonleague match. That result will have important implications for the District Three Class 4A playoffs down the road.
Meanwhile, two of Ephrata’s subsequent victories put the Mountaineers on the precipice of a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Two crown.
First, Ephrata (11-0 L-L, 14-1 overall) dispatched upstart Garden Spot 3-1 on Tuesday. The Mountaineers followed suit with a 3-1 victory over rival Elizabethtown on Thursday.
Reed Gruber said he didn’t see anything in front of him. Just the sweet, sweet goal line, and the six points that came with crossing it.
The Garden Spot senior defensive end never scored a touchdown in his high school career. Before Friday night, that is. And when Gruber jumped a route, picked off a pass and sprinted 25 yards for a second-quarter score against Ephrata, it helped open the floodgates for the Spartans.
Garden Spot scored four second-quarter touchdowns in all, its defense came up big with Gruber’s pick-six, two other interceptions by A.J. Hurst, plus five turnovers on downs, and the Spartans topped Ephrata 42-22 in a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Three football showdown in New Holland.
We here at www.ephratamounts.com are proud sponsors of the Dodgeball for Diabetes tournament.