Mounts Nip Pioneers

Lampeter-Strasburg’s Derek Eckman shielded the ball from a pair of Ephrata defenders in the corner to the left of the Mountaineers’ goal in the 74th minute of the teams’ L-L Section Two boys soccer finale in Ephrata Wednesday. Eckman curled around the defenders, into space, and unloaded a shot that Ephrata goalkeeper Cole Hummel punched away from the lower-left corner of the goal with a lunge to his right to protect the Mountaineers’ 1-0 lead.

Hummel finished with nine saves, and the Ephrata defense withstood a Lampeter-Strasburg second-half push to protect the 1-0 lead until the final whistle.

“The plan is always to be aggressive,” Ephrata coach Rob Deininger said, “and attack and try to score, but the other teams all seem to dictate a little bit, so we go into a little bit of a defensive shell. That’s not out battle plan, but it’s just kind of how all our games end up, and we react very well to that.”

With their second-half defensive stand and their third consecutive shutout, the Mountaineers (8-2-0 in Section Two, 13-4-1 overall) moved into first place in the section and can clinch the section title outright if Elizabethtown wins or ties Manheim Central when the teams meet at 7 p.m. today in Elizabethtown.

Alex Auker netted the game’s lone goal Wednesday in the 53rd minute. Jaron Wenger’s free kick from about 30 yards out sailed into the box, and Auker put a head on it, popping it over L-S keeper Calieb Wigley (eight saves) before colliding with Branson Keener.

“We’ve been very fortunate,” Deininger said, “with our offense. We’ve got two skilled guys up there that we rotate around, and they can put some pressure on the defense. If we get the right through ball or the right square pass, we can execute.”

The Pioneers (4-6, 7-8) possessed the ball for most of the time remaining, swarming the Ephrata end with chances set up by Eckman, Caden Wise, Jared Rice and Logan Heister.

“We connected a lot of passes,” said Gino Di-Somma, the Pioneers’ coach, “a lot of overlapping runs, a lot of onetwos. For me, that was beautiful.”

Ephrata’s defenders — Auker, Wenger, Wenger, Tim Kitchen and Tanyon Loose with midfielder Trevin Hertzog — eliminated space in their own end and cleared out loose balls from the action surrounding them. Hummel made four second-half saves, and Keener lunged into an Eckman shot in the final two minutes.

With a guaranteed top two finish in the section, the Mountaineers advance to Saturday’s L-L League quarterfinals with an opponent and a site to be determined for the noon kickoff.

Lampeter- Strasburg, with its regular season finished, turns its attention to the District Three tournament set to begin Oct. 22.

Section One playoff picture

Warwick moved into first place in Section One with a 2-1 win at Cedar Crest Wednesday. The Warriors (7-3-0, 10-30) began the day in a three-way tie for first place with Hempfield and Manheim Township. The Black Knights (6-40, 12-4-0) dropped a 1-0 decision to Conestoga Valley Wednesday, while the Blue Streaks (6-3-0, 11-3-0) host Penn Manor today.

If Manheim Township wins, the Warriors would be the section’s No. 2 seed in the league playoffs. If Manheim Township loses or ties, Warwick would win the section title outright. A Manheim Township loss would result in a threeway tie for second place, and Conestoga Valley (64-0, 9-7-0) would be the section’s second team in the league playoffs based on tiebreakers.