Mounts Tie Bears

The relatively young sides for Elizabethtown and Ephrata gained valuable experience in their head-to-head clash Tuesday night.

They earned chances, picked up fouls and wore out their legs until they cramped.

What they didn’t earn was an edge in the Lancaster-Lebanon League standings, as the two front-runners in Section Two settled for a 1-1 stalemate through two overtimes at Elizabethtown.

“Our youth is catching up,” said Rob Deininger, Ephrata’s coach. “We were more physical tonight, and more patient. I’m very proud of the boys. Playing in Section Two on the road is never easy.”

The Mountaineers (2-0-1 Section Two, 3-2-2 overall) had withstood early pressure from Elizabethtown’s attack, but Ephrata opened the scoring in the seventh minute. Simon Yoder charged down the right sideline and slipped a pass in to Caleb Gaston, who served up a looping ball that a sliding jab from Angel Gonzalez-Garcia sent spinning into the goal.

“Every game against them is the same,” Deininger said. “It’s a dogfight. Everybody’s giving 100% and just trying to find an opening to score a goal. We found ours with a great ball down to the corner and a cross.”

The Bears (2-0-1, 5-21) bounced right back, regaining control, playing their possession game and searching for an opportunity to strike back.

“That’s a credit to the senior leadership,” said James Sostack, Elizabethtown’s coach. “They didn’t panic. We continued to play our game. We felt comfortable with how we were moving the ball.”

That approach yielded a penalty kick in the 20th minute, a chance that Elizabethtown’s Adam Evans buried in the low right side of the net.

For the next 80 minutes, neither team found the back of the net again. Their defenses clamped down, their few quality chances sailed high or wide or both, and the shots that ended up on target were absorbed by Ephrata goalkeeper Braeden Sorensen (10 saves) and Elizabethtown goalkeeper JJ Oberholtzer (four saves).

“Defensively, we’re pretty solid,” Sostack said. “Our midfield is starting to perform, so it’s really just a matter of taking care of business when opportunities present themselves.”

Ephrata found its legs in the middle stages of the second half, attempting to strike on the run.

Elizabethtown responded with more sets of patient possessions, looking for opportunities.

The Bears found their best chances in the overtime periods. David Fry found Caleb Gerber with a centering pass that Gerber headed into a Sorensen save in the 76th minute. In the late stages of the second overtime, a chance skipped just over the Ephrata crossbar.

“This is our third double overtime of the season,” Sostack said. “We’re getting comfortable in that situation, unfortunately.”

In the end, both teams walked off the field with a sense of satisfaction.

“We’ve had our road games with Manheim Central and them,” Deininger said of his team’s Section Two schedule, “and we got good results.”

Meanwhile, the Bears’ unbeaten streak stretched to four games.

“I’m extremely pleased with how we’re developing,” Sostack said. “We’ve still got tests to come.”

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