Hopkins' heroics lift Ephrata in OT
- 03 October 2008
When the season is on the line, a coach asks her players to lay everything on the line.Gabby Hopkins took that quite literally, diving for the ball in the circle, beating the goalie to the ball, and putting the ball into the cage to give Ephrata a dramatic 2-1 overtime win over Lampeter-Strasburg Thursday.
"I didn't know what was happening at first,'' said Hopkins, a junior forward. "I just fell in (the cage) with (the ball).''
It was the first varsity goal for Hopkins and it helped host Ephrata (7-4 L-L, 9-6 overall) stay in the hunt for the Section Two title while also clinching a league playoff berth.
Manheim Central and Cocalico, which both improved to 7-3 in Section Two with wins Thursday over Solanco and Lebanon, respectively, clinched the other two L-L playoff berths from the section.
While the section title remains up for grabs and could, in theory, end in a four-way tie among Cocalico, Central, Ephrata and L-S with 7-5 final records, the league playoff berths would go to those first three teams based on L-L League tiebreakers.
"Nobody's running away with (the section),'' said L-S coach Jane Keeler. "Almost anything can still happen.''
"It's kind of crazy,'' Ephrata coach Rhoda Mountz said of the logjam in the section. "On any given day any team is capable of stepping to the top.''
The Mounts stepped up Thursday when they needed it most.
"We knew we needed to win every game,'' said senior forward Emily Beamesderfer, who punched the ball ahead to Hopkins on the game-winning play.
Beamesderfer had put Ephrata up 1-0, dodging a defender then going to her right and firing back to the left corner of the cage 11:52 into the game.
L-S (6-5, 10-5) answered right back, with Jenna McHale knotting the score at 1-1 off a penalty corner five minutes later.
It was that type of game; a lot of back-and-forth action with neither team taking command. Ephrata finished with 13 corners and 11 shots while L-S had 11 corners and seven shots.
L-S goalie Paige Charbonneau and her Ephrata counterpart, Samantha Wilt, kept their respective teams in the game with some fantastic saves. Katie Andrews also made a huge defensive save in OT for the Pioneers.
"It was nerve-wracking,'' Mountz said of watching her team pull out the win with just 2:33 left in the 15-minute, 7-on-7 player sudden victory period.
"Certainly, we've talked about (the section race). They realize what's riding on each game. At one time, we had the title in our hands, then we lost to Solanco (3-2 Sept. 24).''
Ephrata then trounced Lebanon 6-0 last Friday before getting hammered 5-0 by Central on Monday, setting up Thursday's showdown.
"(Ephrata) ended up finishing and we just didn't,'' said Keeler. "We came in ready to play, and it was a well-fought, hard-fought game.''
It was a great fight to the finish. Hopkins and Ephrata were fortunate to land the final blow.
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