Mounts rally to win

It is, perhaps, not optimal to play possum the first 24 minutes of a soccer match. Sometimes you can get away with it. Most times not.

The Ephrata girls (3-0 league, 3-2 overall) may not have been playing possum the first 24 minutes of their Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Two match with Manheim Central on Thursday night. But they weren’t playing Mountaineer soccer, either.

“That wasn’t our intention,” Mounts junior midfielder Emily Weidner said. “We were definitely trying to … start off stronger.”

Spotting the Barons (1-2, 3-3) the early advantage, the Mounts got stronger, and stronger, starting in the 24th minute of what became a 2-1 victory, dominating the last 56 minutes to maintain their hold on first place in the section.

They hold the top spot alone as Elizabethtown, behind Jena Witters’ hat trick, knocked Solanco from the unbeaten ranks, and a share of first, with a 4-2 victory earlier Thursday afternoon.

The Barons dominated play the first 17 minutes with five shots on goal, the Mounts Alyssa Wingenroth turning away four.

Manheim broke the ice at the turn to the fifth minute as Abby Knapp sent a through ball ahead to Abby Reed. Reed finished for her sixth goal of the season, Knapp’s second assist.

“It was definitely a great start,” said Barons coach Andrew Stoltzfus. “We were trying to get that second, insurance goal, and they’re the ones that got it.”

Wide left on a try in the seventh minute, Weidner was wide right in the 24th minute, but her shot signaled a turning of the tide as the Mounts mounted six shots — including Weidner’s 39-yard free kick that hit the football crossbar — in the next 15 minutes.

The ball was in the air a lot,” she said, “we finally started to settle down and string passes together. We were more successful when we played the ball on the ground and played quickly.”

She tied the game with her eighth goal of the season, with just under a minute to play in the first half, as Hannah Logue passed, quickly, ahead to Avery Bitner. Just as quickly, Bitner connected with Weidner, whose shot, right-to-left, found the low left corner of the net.

“I took a touch inside and was able to hit it past the keeper,” she noted.

Ephrata finished the half with seven shots on goal and added to that total in the second half, maintaining offensive pressure with 11 shots.

All that pressure produced no result, however; at least not until the 75th minute.

Playing down the left side, Pratt alternated between the left and right wings all night, Pratt collected a ball out of the back from Logue, the Mounts’ left wing fullback, and raced down the left side.

“We’d been talking about using our wingers,” Pratt said, “because we were getting so much space. I saw an opening gap and called for the ball. I took one touch, and took the shot into the right corner.”

The goal, her first of the season, gave the Mounts the edge they needed and they closed out the victory — defending a pair of Barons corner kicks in the last two minutes.

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