Ephrata avenges loss to Cocalico
- 18 April 2008
It took a while this season for the Ephrata girls soccer team to adjust to life without last year's play-maker Arielle Gordon.
With Gordon now a freshman starter at Lock Haven University, the Lady Mounts struggled to score goals out of the gates, and thus lost three of their first four contests including a 1-0 season-opening loss to Cocalico.
But things have begun to change for the better recently as Ephrata has settled into a balanced attack. And Tuesday afternoon, with Cocalico on their pitch for a rematch, the Lady Mounts continued that trend.
L-S (7-1) leads the division with 21 points, followed by E-town (6-1-1, 19) and the Lady Mounts sitting within striking position at 6-2 (18 points).
"Early in the season, we were trying to find the chemistry up front," Ephrata Coach Chris Dutton said. "I think we've got it gelling now. It's not just one person taking (Gordon's) spot. It's everybody who is taking the spot, and that's what we needed to do. They needed to take ownership."
They did just that Tuesday in scoring three first half goals to take command.
Sipe needed just 4:08 to do something her team could not do for a full 80 minutes against Cocalico in the first meeting. She took control of the ball in the left corner, cut to her right and blasted a shot in the upper right corner of the goal for the 1-0 lead.
However, following the score, the Eagles began to earn some chances and cashed in with 15:00 gone as sophomore Katie Rathman took a feed from Jess Esparra and drilled a shot past Ephrata keeper Jan Woolley (four saves) and into the left corner for the equalizer.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, Ephrata took control for good just 18 seconds later when Wilson's header from teammate Emily Beamesderfer found twine and the Lady Mounts regained the one-goal advantage at 2-1.
"That was very disappointing," Cocalico Coach Dan Hogan said. "That took a lot of wind out of us, and we didn't play very well the rest of that half. We played well after their (first goal) and then we kind of let up after our goal. We had trouble developing any kind of rhythm."
Ephrata kept the momentum after its go-ahead goal, and was rewarded late in the half when Goodman found the ball on her left foot in front of the goal and put it past Eagle goalie Alina Rakewicz (seven saves) to give her team a 3-1 halftime lead.
While Ephrata clearly had the advantage in the first half offensively, the second half was about defense for the Lady Mounts. Ephrata completely shutdown the Eagles and kept the ball in its offensive end of the field for most of the half. then, late in the game, Claire Woolley iced it when she rebounded Sipe shot that went off the crossbar, and banged it in for the game's final goal.
For the game, Ephrata outshot Cocalico, 13-6 and held a 4-3 advantage in corners.
Following the contest, Dutton talked about his team's confidence and overall team play as being the keys to its recent success.
"They understand that each one of them is in the play. Everyone of them is important and they are a team. It's not just one player and it's never been about one player," he said. "We got the scoring going and that's the important thing. They know that they can do it. When they want to do it, they can put their minds and focus to it. We want to get our defense to get tighter and limit shots on goal. Their confidence from the front to the back has got to be there, and they are getting it slowly."
And Dutton believes if it comes together, his team will make a run at an elusive section title and possibly overtake L-S and E-town.
"We are coming at them. I'm tired of taking second place and I'm tired of people sneaking around us because of our own (breakdowns). The girls got to want it and we are going to push them to want it harder."
While Ephrata has fought back into the thick of things in the section, Cocalico, at 4-3-1 (section), now needs a little help if it wants to remain in the hunt for an L-L playoff spot.
"We got a long way to go. We have six section games remaining and we definitely have some goals still out there," Hogan said. "I don't think a league playoff spot is totally out of the question but at this point we need some help. But if we start playing well and we get back to playing the way we were we could qualify for a league playoff spot. We need to find a way to get at least three more wins to get into districts, and that's something I'll make sure the girls realize. (But) there are not a lot of easy wins out there, especially the way the section is this year."
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