Central nets psychological boost
Central York girls' soccer coach Liz Critchfield insists the talent has always been there.
Despite dropping five league games this season and just barely getting in to the YAIAA tournament as the No. 4 seed out of Division I, Critchfield said her squad was just as talented as its league counterparts -- the Panthers just needed to get their heads straight and their confidence up.
Check and check.
First, it was a quarterfinal shootout victory over Eastern York on Monday. Then, the Panthers scored twice in the first five minutes of Wednesday's semifinal against Dallastown and never looked back, earning a 3-2 victory.
Now, with or without currently ineligible star midfielder Casey Morrison, the Panthers are in prime position to pounce on Spring Grove in Friday's final and take their first tournament title since 2001, according to Critchfield.
"This gives them a big boost," Critchfield said of her players. "It built their confidence. They've always had it together, it's just that they needed to believe in themselves and believe they can do it.
"We all know that winning is the most important thing, unfortunately. If you keep losing, it's tough. What helped us was getting those two scores ahead and we said 'We can really do this tonight. We have every right to be here.'"
Division I top seed Spring Grove, which was a 2-0 winner over Susquehannock in Wednesday's other semifinal, has already beaten Central twice this season and extended its unbeaten streak over league opponents to 16 games with the victory.
As for Dallastown, they will try to recover from what coach Barry Barbush called his team's first "off day" of the season.
"We lost to Lancaster Mennonite early on 1-0 and they scored at the end -- I think we were tired," Barbush said. "We had Hempfield 1-0 and we had two girls that were hurt during that game and we lost 3-1, but it was a hot game on their turf. We played well in both of those games. but today, we just didn't seem to have it. It's probably the first off day I have seen from these girls."
So is the fact that there has only been a single off night a good thing or is the fact that the off night is happening now -- right before districts -- a reason for concern?
"Well, we're going to use this as time to refocus," Barbush answered. "We're going to come into practice and totally refocus and dedicate ourselves to getting to states."
