Mounts drop heartbreaker to Eagles

MECHANICSBURG — After over 90 tense minutes that featured a multitude of scoring opportunities, Cumberland Valley finally struck gold Tuesday night.

A brilliant cross from the right wing by Jaxton Gerhart found the head of forward Emily Mashinki, who calmly buried the ball in the corner of the net to secure a 2-1 overtime victory over Ephrata in a District Three Class 4A girls soccer semifinal contest at Cumberland Valley.

The Eagles, the defending District Three champions and the No. 1 seed this year, will now face second-seeded Hempfield, which defeated Wilson 2-1 in overtime Tuesday night, in Saturday’s title game at 7:30 p.m. .at Hersheypark Stadium.

Ephrata will travel to Wilson in the third place game with a chance to advance to the state playoffs.

Ephrata junior goalkeeper Jocelyn Umana withstood numerous challenges to keep the score tied late into the evening, stopping one golden opportunity from Cumberland Valley after another.

Just under 10 minutes into the second half, Umana made three straight brilliant saves within 60 seconds. First, she got her leg on a volley off a cross, then made a sure-handed save on a rocketed shot from about 18 yards out, and she finished off her trifecta by rushing off her line to make a sliding save on Mashinki, who had beaten the Mounts defenders.

Umana also made a diving save to her right to preserve the tie in the final moments of regulation.

The Eagles controlled the pace of the game all night, led by the technical footwork and intelligent distribution of center midfielder Caroline Schultz. This control of the midfield led to a steady diet of attacks down the wings, resulting in countless crosses for scoring opportunities.

“We had watched seven different games of theirs, and knew they liked to play compact, so we tried to attack the wings,” said Cumberland Valley head coach George Gemberling.

In all, the play on the wings spearheaded an effort that saw Cumberland Valley outshoot Ephrata 17-4 while earning nine corners.

Ephrata, however, did not go down without a fight. The Mounts withstood a relentless Cumberland Valley attack over the game’s first 15-plus minutes, turning away one Eagle opportunity after another.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the Mounts exploded for a counter attack, threading a pass through the middle of the Eagles’ defense. Forward Annie Slovak sprinted between two CV defenders, beating goalkeeper Abigail Miller to the ball, and forcing a foul 20 yards from the goal.

Reagan McCarty took over from there for Ephrata. The senior back calmly stepped up to take the free kick, and drilled a shot into the upper left corner of the net just beyond the outstretched hands of the keeper.

Although Ephrata did not generate a lot of scoring chances, Slovak spent the entirety of the evening wreaking havoc on the Eagles defenders. She was often the lone striker and even drifted back into the midfield to collect passes where she would often be greeted by multiple defenders.

McCarty did get one more chance in the second half when her free kick from 25 yards out skipped just inches wide of the left goal post after being narrowly deflected. The kick was earned after a moment of brilliance from Abi Wiest, who juked to her right and then cut back inside to her left foot where she was fouled.

After falling behind 1-0, Cumberland Valley tied the game with about 20 minutes left in the first half on a great run by Mashinki, who received a pass between two defenders, and tucked the ball just inside the same post where she would net the game-winner later in the night.

• Prev
• Next