Hershey took a major step toward securing the Keystone Division title in the Mid-Penn Conference with a slick 2-1 win over the Mechanicsburg Wildcats at the Northside Soccer Stadium Tuesday night.
Mechanicsburg edged Hershey 1-0 on April 16th at Hershey, which set the Wildcats on their run to the national rankings. Hershey had won its first eight games of the season. The Trojans also played the first game without Riliegh McHugh, who was playing with the United States U-18 National team that day. The Trojans have now won their last six games.
Hershey (10-1 Keystone, 15-1 overall) got goals from Caroline Brown and Molly Briggs to offset a Natalie Zelenky tally.
The teams’ familiarity with each other helped the Trojans and Wildcats play excellent defense. Numerous players play club ball together and against one another in the fall and winter seasons, and in year-round club ball. Many participate in the National Showcase tournaments, and at least seven players in the game have verbally committed or signed letters of intent to play soccer for Division 1, 2 or 3 colleges for the fall season.
McHugh will attend Georgia, Brown will be at Tennessee, Briggs is going to Central Florida and Ali Rogers to Messiah. Ariel Arnold of Mechanicsburg has committed to High point University, and Nicki Keiser has signed with East Stroudsburg. Wildcats Jodie Zelenky and Ali Matisse have already or will soon commit to schools in the near future.
Brown, the all-state forward from Hershey, and Zelenky, the freshman forward for the Wildcats, spent much of the evening trying to avoid defenders and find players to shuffle the ball to. They drew hordes of players whenever the ball got to them. Zelenky had several long runs with her ball-handling skills but couldn’t get the key finish in the opening half. Brown found some support from her fellow players but again found very little room to maneuver.
Boyer sent in an airball from the midfield area, somehow it bounced in the box among several players, and Brown was able to flip it over an onrushing Keiser for the opening goal of the contest 23 minutes into the game.
Matisse of the Wildcats took a dish from Zelenky and clocked a shot that Hershey keeper Shannon Fedyk had to fingertip over the crossbar.
Several minutes later, the combo went into action again, but this time Zelenky was able to finish the dish and tie the contest at one.
Hershey got the winning score when Briggs sent in a cross off of a corner kick. It carried into the far corner of the goal as Keiser tried to reach through traffic to punch the ball away.
Mechanicsburg (8-2 Keystone, 12-3 overall) pushed players forward and had two great chances as one cross from Holly Burgard appeared to deflect off of a Hershey player’s hand, but all three officials felt it was unintentional, so the whistle never blew despite the howling of the Wildcat bench and the team’s fans.
In the final minute, Jodie Zelenky sailed a restart from midfield into the box, and several Wildcats touched the ball, but with 21 players inside the penalty area, no one got a clear touch to try to score.
“We knew coming in it would be just like the last game,” said Hershey coach Jeff Rosensteel. “They got us earlier in the season. It was fun to watch these two teams go back and forth. It was just one game, and now we have to focus on Palmyra Thursday night and then we will worry about any other games.”
“Both teams had opportunities, and the girls played well tonight,” said Wildcat coach Tony Lougee. “The girls evaluate themselves and they know whether they played well or not. I have no complaints about our effort. They played hard and you are not going to get the result you want every single time. Hershey is a quality team with players like Brown, McHugh and Boyer.”
Mechanicsburg travels to Gettysburg Thursday night and to Lower Dauphin Friday afternoon and then goes across Silver Springs Township to play Cumberland Valley Saturday night at Eagle View Stadium.
By Jeffrey Kauffman, May 5, 2010
