Big night of YAIAA girls' soccer

Red Lion 1, Eastern York 0: As the clock wound down in the second half of the YAIAA girls’ soccer playoff game between Red Lion and Eastern York, it became apparent that the first goal would most likely win the contest.

Enter Erin Wright.

With 13:20 remaining, the Red Lion sophomore approached a free kick from about 30 yards out.

Her shot sailed high into the night at Northeastern High School and over Golden Knights goalkeeper Erica Wood for the only goal of the game as the Lions advanced to the league semifinals with the 1-0 win.

Red Lion, now 15-2-1, moves on the play Kennard-Dale, 7 p.m. Thursday at Susquehannock. The Rams won the opening game of the doubleheader by the same 1-0 score, over York Catholic.

As soon as Wright struck the ball, the Red Lion bench was ready to celebrate.

“I had one kind of like that at South Western from about the same spot,� Wright said. “I feel like that is my shot. No matter if (Lions’ coach Ben Smith) told me to chip it or not, I was going to shoot it.�

Smith of course, knew better. After all, goals were hard to come by Tuesday night and Eastern matched up well with his team’s speed.

“This is exactly what we expected,� the coach said. “I knew they were strong defensively all season. Their best players are in the back, and we knew they had a good goalie. We got to halftime and we were like, ‘This is going to be 1-0.’ �

The game was very similar to the season meeting between the two when it was scoreless in overtime until the Lions prevailed on a goal by, of course, Wright.

For their part, Eastern came right back after the goal. With less than eight minutes to play, Knights’ sophomore Sadie Winship got a free kick from a tough angle and put a hard shot on goal that Lions’ keeper Kendra Ness caught.

“You saw how they took the attack right to us after the goal,� Smith said. “That is something we need to work on. We need to get better at that. Our philosophy is go get the next goal to try and solidify the lead.�

Eastern outshot Red Lion 7-5 for the game, but the Lions carried play early in the second half, with five scoring chances in the first seven minutes after the break.

Spring Grove 3, Dover 1: Patience was the word for Spring Grove.

The Rockets controlled the ball for much of the first hour of their YAIAA girls quarterfinal Tuesday against Dover, but had only a one-goal deficit to show for it.

That changed after forward Kaylyn Mahon stole the ball from two Eagles defenders in Dover’s box. A deft move to her right pulled goal keeper Bobbie Reinoehl just far enough to allow Mahon to slip a ball into the net, evening the score with less than 19 minutes to play.

That first crack in the Eagles’ defense paved the way for two more Spring Grove goals and a 3-1 victory. The Rockets advance to face Susquehannock on the Warriors’ home field Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the semifinals.

Mahon finished with a goal and an assist. Larissa Mealey and Ali Gross each had goals. Amber Myers added an assist.

Dover enjoyed the lead for much of the game thanks to a quick goal from Emily Menotti five minutes into the game. She pulled up on a breakaway and lofted a ball about 30 yards over the head of Spring Grove keeper Sarah Cregger.

The Rockets controlled the ball, but their midfielders consistently led their forwards a bit too deep in the first half, resulting in poor shots.

“We were definitely all around the goal,� Spring Grove coach Ashley Rohrbaugh said. “At that point, it’s just a matter of finishing, and we weren’t doing that in the first half.�

Spring Grove continued to dominate the ball in the second half but Reinoehl stopped a flurry of shots in the first 20 minutes. Finally, Mahon broke through.

“It was getting very frustrating,� Mahon said. “It took a lot of just everyone saying, especially seniors, we don’t want our season to end, so let’s step it up and play like we know how to play.�

Mealey, a defender, put the Rockets ahead eight minutes later when she followed a play up the field and buried a cross from Myers deep in the net. That Mealey was able to follow the play forward shows Spring Grove’s total control of the ball.

Gross added an insurance goal on an assist from Mahon on a play almost identical to Mealey’s score.

Kennard-Dale 1, York Catholic 0: With her team taking on YAIAA Division III champ York Catholic in the opening round of the YAIAA girls’ soccer playoffs, Kennard-Dale forward Kayla Denmyer knew she better not miss the chance she had.

“If I didn’t (score), I think everyone would have been mad at me,� Denmyer said. “If I didn’t finish that it would have been really bad. It was a perfect pass. Anybody should have finished that.�

Mid-way through the first half, Denmyer took the perfect cross pass from Kara Stanley in-stride and drilled a shot past York Catholic goalkeeper Schuyler Merritt.

It was the only goal of the game, and the Rams advanced to the semifinals with the 1-0 victory.

Kennard-Dale (13-5-1) will face Red Lion, also a 1-0 winner over Eastern York, in the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader played at Northeastern High School. The two will square off 7 p.m. Thursday at Susquehannock.

After taking the early lead, the Rams defense, led mostly by the wall-like play of Sarah Kelly, took over.

“I thought in the first half we had plenty of great chances,� Irish coach Ryan Luckman said. “We just didn’t charge like we were supposed to. The second half, they tightened up defensively and didn’t allow us to have too many good chances.�

Despite Kennard-Dale’s 6-1 advantage in corner kicks, York Catholic outshot the Rams, 10-6.

Still, many of the Irish shots were from the 30-yard range, which was a part of Rams’ coach Al Chesnavage’s game plan.

“We knew they had some talented players,� he said. “They won their division. The main thing we were going to do was try to take away (Irish forward) Kate Harney. Try to mark her pretty good, and make somebody else try to beat us.�

Keeper Heather McDonald posted the shutout for the Rams. She stopped Harney on long free kicks twice in the second half and was solid throughout the contest.

The Rams nearly took a two-goal lead to the intermission. Late in the half, Brittany Willliams’ header off a Denmyer throw-in hit the goalpost and was gobbled up by Merritt.

Susquehannock 4, Central York 1: Try as you might, it’s very hard to stop Dana Zalowski’s head.

The senior used her noggin to knock two headers into the goal Tuesday, propelling Susquehannock to a 4-1 win against Central York in the YAIAA quarterfinals.

“She’s done it all year,� Susquehannock coach Brett Maxwell said. “Especially with Dana, with how tall she is, if you get the ball to her head, she’s going to win a lot of balls.�

With the win, the Warriors advance to play Spring Grove on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Susquehannock.

Zalowski had one goal in each half, with assists coming from Dani Collins and Jess Shue. Emily Reimold added a pair of late goals on breakaways for the Warriors.

Despite the score, Central looked primed for an upset in the first half, keeping Susquehannock in dry-dock for much of the period.

Central scored first when Malynda Beck pushed the ball down the right sideline, turned at the endline and fired a hard cross to the left side of the box where Kim Podolsky was waiting to pop it in the net 11 minutes into the game.

Two minutes later, Zalowski evened the score after the Panthers left her unmarked in the box. Susquehannock managed a flurry of shots before the end of the half, but couldn’t find the goal.

The Warriors came out firing in the second half but Central’s defense — bolstered by Beck moving to the back line — held firm. Panthers’ keeper Lacey Jackson even stopped a Zalowski penalty kick.

But Central could only resist for so long. The 5-foot-7 Zalowski scored her second goal off Susquehannock’s fourth corner kick in as many minutes.

Trailing, the Panthers shifted their players forward. That allowed Reimold, who earlier missed several open field chances, to spring herself on two breakaways. Each time she deked Jackson and rolled a ball into the net, bringing her goal total for the season to 30.