DAVID RUNG, The Patriot-News, April 16, 2011 11:52 p.m

Mechanicsburg and Trinity let loose a deluge of goals in their victories in the opening round of the Mechanicsburg girls’ soccer tournament, but it wasn’t close to the deluge of rain that came soon after, bringing the tournament to a wet and early end.

Mechanicsburg toppled Camp Hill 5-0 in the opener, while Trinity took out Northern 4-1. Lightning delayed the JV contests between the first round and championship, and a never-ending downpour flooded the field and overwhelmed the drainage system, causing the final two games to be postponed.

“Obviously, it’s a no-brainer,” Mechanicsburg coach Tony Lougee said about cutting the day short. “We’re lucky we got the games in that we did.”

The artificial turf at Mechanicsburg’s Memorial Park field began bubbling during the final minutes of the last JV game, creating dangerous obstructions, some approaching five yards in diameter. Lougee waited as long as he could, but the water kept creeping toward midfield.

The unplayable conditions nixed the match between the Wildcats and Shamrocks, two of the better Mid-Penn teams at the midway point of the season.

“They look forward to playing Trinity every year,” Lougee said. “It’s a rivalry that goes back a long way. They’re a good team and it’s always a good game. I enjoy playing local, West Shore schools.”

The Wildcats opened up quickly against the Lions, getting five shots on goal in the first few minutes. They cashed in when Holly Burgard’s cross landed on Ali Matisse’s right foot, and the redirect was enough to sink the shot only 3:58 in.

After a 22-minute drought, Mechanicsburg put the game out of reach with three goals in 10 minutes. Natalie Zelenky scored the first two, both off feeds from sister Jodie.

Trinity waited a lot longer to get its offense in gear, but once it did, it only took 26 minutes to score four times. Alicia Mirando bagged the hat trick, with two slick goals flanking a penalty kick through the middle part of the second half.

“We realized with the weather, the environment wasn’t the best, but you have to play your game and put the ball on the ground and work the same way,” Shamrocks coach Terry Mull said after her team’s victory. “We need more competition like that. We like that. We want to play against the bigger schools and challenge our girls.”

By Kurt Bopp, Sentinel Reporter The Sentinel – cumberlink.com | Posted: Thursday, April 7, 2011 10:30 pm
Round one of the battle for the Mid-Penn Keystone crown went to Lower Dauphin.

The Falcons’ girls soccer team edged Mechanicsburg, 2-1, at the Northside pitch Thursday night. The Wildcats scored a minute after falling behind 2-0, but weren’t able to find the equalizer.

Despite the loss, Mechanicsburg coach Tony Lougee had some good things to say about his team’s performance in the second half.

“We’ve been playing sort of tight, and I thought ever since the season started, we haven’t started well,” Lougee said. “We haven’t really loosened up and played. Finally in the second half we started to do that.”

The Wildcats (3-1, 2-1 Keystone) held Lower Dauphin scoreless in the first half, but the Falcons controlled the ball for the majority of the half and constantly attacked the Wildcat net. Early in the game, Caity Fox of Lower Dauphin took a pass at the top of the box and fired a shot, but it went wide of the net – a recurring theme for the Falcons.

Lower Dauphin (6-0, 4-0) finished with only one shot on goal in the first half, but the Falcons had a number of opportunities and had many shots go wide or over the net.

Midway through the half, Rhiannon Miller passed to Hunter Bracale just inside the Wildcat box, but Bracale’s shot went wide right. The Wildcats countered but were called offside before they could shoot.

With 15 minutes left in the half, Lower Dauphin was awarded a free kick just five yards out of the Mechanicsburg box.

The Falcons tapped it to Fox, who fired a shot over the net.

The Wildcats’ lone first-half shot came from Natalie Zelenky, who corralled a through-ball and outran a defender for a small breakaway. Zelenky kicked a low shot, but Lower Dauphin goalie MacKenzie Strubhar saved it.

Mechanicsburg started the second half with the ball, but the Falcons quickly went on the attack and were awarded an early corner. The kick went out of bounds.

The Wildcats started to generate more offense, connecting on more passes as they started to attack the Falcon net and new goalie Taylor Alwine.

“(Lougee) told us (at halftime) that we needed to loosen up and play and stop being so nervous,” Mechanicsburg junior Holly Burgard said. “Just play like we did a few weeks ago.”

Lougee’s words seemed to ignite the Wildcats. Mechanicsburg got a corner kick shortly after the break and got a shot off from inside the box. The shot went just over the net.

Shortly after, Zelenky outran a defender and got in the box from the left side. Alwine came out to break up the play, and Zelenky chipped a shot over the keeper, but it hit the left top corner of goal.

The Falcons countered, and this time came out ahead.

Lower Dauphin’s Alanna Dunkle raced down the side and passed into the box. The Falcons got a point-blank shot off, but Mechanicsburg’s Shelby Koch saved it. With traffic in the box, the ball was hit toward the net again, but a Wildcat defender stopped it and passed it to the right side to clear it. Bracale raced in from the right and tapped the ball into the open net with 29 minutes remaining.

Minutes later, Zelenky nearly tied it up when she tried to shake a defender in the box. The Falcon defense poked the ball away and cleared it before Zelenky could get a shot.

With 23 minutes left in the 1-0 game, Dunkle flew down the right side toward the Wildcat net. As Wildcats closed in on her, she fired a shot just over Koch into the left top corner for a two-goal lead.

“They struck twice and (Dunkle) did a great job,” Lougee said. “Beat us twice. But I thought we played better, and I was happy to see us open up and just play. Being down two quickly like that was tough, but I was happier with the way we played that half.”

The coach noted how quickly his team responded.

Less than a minute after Dunkle’s goal, Wildcat senior Megan Mateja took the ball to the Falcon net. She fired a low shot that hit the inside of the post but slowly rolled out. Burgard ran in and kicked it in to cut the deficit to one.

“(Scoring the goal) was great,” Burgard said. “I thought we were going to come back and win it. The bounces didn’t go our way this time, but next time we’ll get them.”

As the game wound to a close, both teams traded scoring opportunities. Zelenky kicked a hard shot from the top of the box over the Falcon net. Lower Dauphin responded with a series similar to the first goal. After Koch saved a Falcon shot, Lower Dauphin pounced on the rebound. Mechanicsburg defender Rose White kicked the shot away just before it could go in.

“We’re doing the things we need to do, it just hasn’t clicked as far as getting the possession and pressure we need consistently to really play the way we need to play it,” Lougee said. “I’m happy with the way we’ve contained teams, I’m happy with the way we’ve clogged things up. We’re looking to get the ball forward. It hasn’t been clicking yet, and I think a lot of it is the pressure they’re putting on themselves.”

The coach said his team was creating chances Thursday that they’ve been lacking throughout the season.

Mechanicsburg shot the ball late, but Alwine came through with a few big saves. With less than five minutes remaining, the Wildcats lobbed the ball into the box amid traffic from both teams. The Wildcasts fought to tap in the equalizer, but Alwine dove to the corner and wrapped it up to stifle the attack. The goalie cleared it and Lower Dauphin kept the ball out of its box until the final whistle.

“It was a tough loss,” Burgard said. “It’s good though that we lost early instead of later. We can learn from this mistake.”

Lougee said his team may have taken a big step.

“We have a bunch of new players,” he said. “We have some girls back from a decent team last year. There are expectations that I think fairly or unfairly were laid at the girls’ feet, so I think they’ve been nervous and not just playing like they can. Hopefully we got over that tonight and that’ll be the answer. We can just come out and enjoy ourselves and get at it a little bit.”

By Jeffrey Kauffman, Sentinel Reporter The Sentinel – cumberlink.com | Posted: Tuesday, April 5, 2011 11:16 pm

Natalie Zelenky scored the golden goal with just 56 seconds left in the second overtime period to give the Mechanicsburg Wildcats a 2-1 victory over Red Land at Frederick Field in Memorial Park on Tuesday night.

The contest was shifted from Northside stadium because of wet conditions, and that decision changed the coaches’ philosophy a bit – the park field is approximately 20 yards narrower than Northside’s grass and features turf instead of grass, making the surface faster and quicker.

The two teams battled through 99 minutes of regulation and overtime before Zelenky struck.

The sophomore forward raced onto a deflection on the left flank and turned to see the Patriot keeper, Rachel Skonecki, sliding toward her. She calmly ripped a shot past her into the net for the game-winner from 18 yards away. Holly Burgard had played the ball that was deflected by one of the Patriot defenders.

The score stood even at one after 80 minutes of regulation play, and each team had a couple of chances in both overtime periods. Ali Matisse of the Wildcats and Erika Wilt of the Patriots had the best scoring chances. Matisse’s rip from 20 yards skimmed off the top of the crossbar, and Wilt’s rip from just inside the box sailed just wide right of the goal post.

Mechanicsburg (3-0 overall) had the first good chance in the game, but Zelenky sailed a shot wide. Her older sister, Jodie, had two rips on set pieces from about 40 yards, but Skonecki snagged them as traffic started to surround her.

Neither team could dent the scoreboard in the opening half, but the Wildcats scored quickly in the second half.

Matisse took the kickoff and dribbled down the field and dropped a pass to Natalie Zelenky, who dribbled around a defender and ripped a shot that handcuffed Skonecki. The ball bounded off her hands and rolled into the net just 16 seconds into the half.

Red Land (0-2 Commonwealth, 2-4 overall), which has played a myriad of potential playoff teams so far this season, started to string passes together, found the offensive zone and started to put pressure on the Wildcat defense. The Patriots finally broke through as Kaylee Harner fed a ball toward the net. Wildcat keeper Shelby Koch didn’t field the ball cleanly, and Brittany Wentzel was there to finish the shot to tie the contest.

The Patriots now have beaten Northern and Red Lion and have dropped games to Lower Dauphin, Cumberland Valley and Central Dauphin as well as the Wildcats. All four losses are to potential state playoff teams.

Red Land is still searching for that goal-scorer to step up this season. Katie Lippert went to the University of Pittsburgh with her 100 career goals, and coach Jamie Miller is searching for her replacement.

“The kids played very well in the second half on offense,” said Miller. “I thought we did a good job defensively on both Zelenky sisters and Matisse, but it only takes one time and Natalie made us pay. I hope our kids don’t feel a loss like this again. This one hurts, having the chances to win and to give up a goal in the final minute. We just have to keep fighting.”

“This was good win for us,” said Wildcat coach Tony Lougee. “We didn’t play well and we had numerous chances in the game early. Both teams had better chances in overtime but we just happened to finish one chance.”

Mechanicsburg (2-0 Keystone, 3-0 overall) hosts Lower Dauphin Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Northside while the Patriots host Chambersburg at 3:45 p.m. at Crossroads Middle School.

DAVID RUNG, The Patriot-News, March 30, 2011 8:26 a.m.

For the opening half, Middletown hung with Mechanicsburg, one of the best teams in the Raiders’ new division.

But when Holly Burgard found the back of the net for the Wildcats with only four minutes gone in the second to push the lead to two goals, it took the wind out of their sails and allowed Mechanicsburg to cruise to the 3-1 victory.

“It deflated us a little bit,” Middletown coach Chris Hunter said of the Wildcats’ third goal. “We’re young. We have three freshmen on the field, sometimes even four or five. So we’re learning, and I’m trying to get them to know that each game we have to get a little bit better.”

The Raiders appeared to be in it when Tiana Blanding’s second chance popped over the Mechanicsburg goalkeeper’s head and into the net with 20 minutes gone in the first half. Middletown was able to keep the pressure on for the rest of the period, earning its only other shot on goal when freshman Brittany Zavoda’s blast was stopped by Shelby Koch.

Even when Ali Matisse’s finish 7:30 after Middletown’s equalizer gave Mechanicsburg the lead for good, the Raiders kept attacking.

Halftime adjustments worked for the Wildcats though, as they were able to get off 12 shots in the second half while holding the opposition to zero.

“It’s our first game out, and I really think we just needed to find a rythmn and get our feet under us,” Mechanicsburg skipper Tony Lougee said. “I thought we just settled down and played soccer in the second half. We certainly played a lot better. We moved the ball a lot better and were patient.”

The Wildcats essentially played keep-away after their third tally, preventing Middletown from nearing their goal until the clock neared 10 minutes remaining in the game. Three spectacular saves from Raiders keeper Emileigh Lloyd kept the final score close.

Mechanicsburg Soccer Alumnus Bobby Warshaw was selected 17th overall in the 2011 MLS Superdraft by FC Dallas. Bobby attended Stanford University after graduating from Mechanicsburg where he set a number of records. Bobby will now take his craft to Dallas to help a team which made it to the finals of the MLS Cup this past season. To read more about Bobby please visit the FC Dallas website by clicking here.

With recruiters from Georgetown and several other college programs among those watching attentively from the chilly Henry Hershey Field bleachers — and his club sitting in a tenuous 1-1 tie at the halftime break — Austin Martz knew he had to get things cranked up.

Like pronto.

And even though Mechanicsburg’s energetic senior playmaker was denied several times early in the second half, Martz knew his hungry Wildcats were about to break through and create some separation from a scrappy East Pennsboro side. Little did he know, the gap would grow quickly.

Getting two second-half finishes from the high-octane Martz and one apiece from Alex Panuccio and Matt Steele, a hepped-up Mechanicsburg group wheeled to a convincing 5-2 triumph Thursday night in the semifinal round of the Mid-Penn Conference’s tournament of soccer champions.

David Strausbaugh also scored for the Wildcats (18-1), who will meet Cumberland Valley in Saturday’s championship game, also at Milton Hershey’s Henry Hershey Field. CV (17-2) needed all three of Jared Martinelli’s goals and one from Dan Prete to hold off Gettysburg 4-3 in the other semi.

“As a team we really came at them in the second half with a lot of pace and we just wore down their defenders,” said Martz, who assisted on Strausbaugh’s first-half finish and Panuccio’s go-ahead score. “We just went at them with a ton of speed, and all of our passes were short and crisp.

“And when we saw the ball over the top, we played the ball over the top. I thought we played a lot smarter in the second half.”

“I just thought we played better in the second half,” Mechanicsburg coach Tony Lougee added. “We needed this. We needed to come out and play against a good team with pace and get back to playing a little bit of soccer.”

Seemingly in control of an entertaining affair played at a crisp, high-octane tempo once Strausbaugh cashed in at the 16:33 mark, the Wildcats were mystified by an iffy foul call in the area that set up Nate Conrad’s penalty kick just before the halftime horn.

Still mumbling amongst themselves during the break, a few motivational words from the reasonably calm yet resolute Lougee relaxed Mechanicsburg’s antsy group and had the Keystone Division champions determined to chase down and collar a desirable result.

No problem.

Attacking East Penn keeper Kyle Miller (5 saves) from the second-half whistle, Martz watched the Panthers sophomore turn away one shot and parry another off the crossbar.

Moments later, Martz’s cross from the right flank found Steele near the top of the 18. Steele appeared to wind up, but his pop was deflected to his left and a wide-open Panuccio. Given a moment to collect and load, the Wildcats junior launched a blistering rip at 6:13 that made it 2-1.

“Coming into the game, ‘I said if we stop Martz, we’ll win,’¤” said East Penn skipper Matt Uhrich, whose Panthers (18-1) tumbled for the first time. “Obviously, we didn’t do that.”

Martz’s first successful crack, off a Strausbaugh set-up, arrived with 12:47 gone. Then, at the 18:06 mark and with left back Kaushal Pathak draped all over him, he buried another timely shot.

Steele’s finish with 5:52 to go, off the second of Panuccio’s two assists, added a Mechanicsburg exclamation point that stood despite a late Marcus Fissel goal.

In the earlier game, CV received a serious scare from a rambunctious Gettysburg bunch (13-4) that jumped ahead with 46 seconds gone when an Eagles defensive miscue set up Tyler Smith’s easy finish.

CV rattled off the next three, however, grabbing a 3-1 lead at the 23:26 mark as Martinelli sandwiched two of his scores around Prete’s marker. Matt Billman’s Commonwealth Division champions had several chances to extend their lead, but could not find another score.

And when Zach Tarbox stepped, turned and whistled a shot inside the left post that startled CV keeper Mike Kirk (2 saves) with 8:30 to go in the half, the Warriors (13-4) trailed 3-2.

Martinelli cashed in again midway through the second half to restore CV’s lead to a deuce, but gritty Gettysburg made things interesting with just over three minutes remaining when Connor Fees stuck in a rebound. But, the Colonial Division winners would not net another.

“I thought we overcame our very slow start and sluggish play by playing a lot better in the second half,” said Billman, whose Eagles won their eighth straight game.

Article by Michael Bullock of the Patriot News. For full article click here.