By Ara Grigorian
The Manheim Township boys' soccer team has won five straight Lancaster-Lebanon League titles. And the Streaks will have faced their Section One nemesis Hempfield on Monday (after this paper's press time) as they go for a sixth straight championship.
The championship match, which was initially scheduled for Friday but rescheduled due to rain, was played at Penn Manor.
The Blue Streaks will take a 17-1-1 record into the finale against Hempfield, who brings a 14-4-1 record. The Black Knights' semi-final match was a dogfight against Conestoga Valley, going to penalty shootouts while tied 2-2. The Knights edged the Buckskins 5-4 in the PK round.
Manheim Township came up big against a strong Lancaster Mennonite squad in the second semifinal match played at Penn Manor as part of a doubleheader on Thursday. The Blue Streaks defeated the Section Three champs 5-0, scoring five times against a team that had allowed only 14 goals to league opponents during the regular season.
Senior John Grosh scored the first of five goals for Township and later assisted on another. Fellow senior Luke Oostdyk had two assists on the day.
Less than two minutes after Grosh had put Township on top, sophomore Nate Thompson made it 2-0 at the 24:51 mark.
Holding a 2-0 lead at halftime, Blue Streak senior Matt Baker earned a penalty kick. He delivered his team's third goal from the charity spot, making it 3-0 with 12 minutes gone in the second half.
Senior Kyle Kinderwater and junior Matt Baldantoni capped off the scoring while senior goalie Jon Chieppor needed to make three saves for the shutout.
Chieppor wasn't faced with any shots in Township's 2-0 shutout of Donegal in the quarterfinals on Monday. The Blue Streaks out-shot the Indians 12-0.
Don Burton's blast past Indians senior goalie Adam Forster made it 1-0. Oostdyk added an insurance goal 16:25 into the second half. Donegal ended its L-L League campaign with a 12-6 mark.
TENNIS
In the District Three Class AAA Doubles Tournament at Hershey Racquet Club over the weekend, the title match came down to two pairs of L-L League stars. The Hempfield pair of Chelsie Yacks and Mackenzie Smith faced the Manheim Township twosome of Lauren Stauffer and Caroline Barry.
Smith and Yacks defeated Katie Lytle and Marissa Singer of Central Dauphin East 6-1, 6-2 in the first round while Barry and Stauffer dismantled the Susquehanna Township team of Chris Evangelista and Julia Krispas 6-0, 6-0.
In the quarterfinals, Yacks and Smith were 6-2, 6-1 winners over Julia Seidel and Sami Weisberg of Wilson. Stauffer and Barry came through with 6-3, 6-2 straight set wins over Emma Forster and Madeline Maria of Cedar Crest.
The semifinals pitted the Hempfield duo against Jennifer Learmonth and Maggie Golden of Central York. Learmonth had eliminated Barry in the opening singles round the previous week in districts.
And Learmonth and her partner did take the first set 6-1 over Yacks and Smith. But the Hempfield duo bounced back 6-3, 6-3, earning a trip to the finals.
Stauffer and Barry blanked Amelia Capuano and Jenna Loubach of Cumberland Valley 6-0, 6-0 in the other semi-final match.
And the Township team kept the momentum going into the title match, defeating Yacks and Smith 6-4, 6-3.
CROSS COUNTRY
The Manheim Township girls placed six runners among the top 30 finishers in Tuesday's L-L League Championship race at Ephrata Middle School. In doing so, the Blue Streaks finished second only to Warwick as a team.
Kayla Robertson led the Streaks with a 20:16 pace. The sophomore finished ninth overall.
Senior Roz Reynolds ran a 20:28 on the day, finishing 14th. Juniors Lindsay High (20:32) and Leslie Henny (20:54) finished 16th and 22nd, respectively. Sophomore Megan Leutner ran the course in 20:56 while junior Abby Ness was only a step behind (20:57). They finished 24th and 26th, respectively.
Winning the girls' race was Kayleigh Perry. The Elco senior defended her title by winning this year's race in 18:52, which was 14 seconds better than Warwick's Emily Cameron (19:06).
The top runner in the boys' race was Jon Jackson of Cedar Crest. He finished in 16:44.
A packed pack of runners followed Jackson across the finish line, including his teammate Alex Galli (16:51) and the likes of Hempfield junior Matt Groff (16:59), Garden Spot senior Jesse Mancuso (17:01) and sixth-place finisher Keith Mast (17:04) of Lancaster Mennonite. Elco's Kyle Kessler wasn't far behind, finishing seventh at 17:05 while Elizabethtown's Keith Kreider (17:08) took eighth.
Senior Sean Sharkey led the Manheim Township runners in the boys' race. Sharkey finished 10th with a time of 17:13. Ian Hackett's time of 17:19 was good for 12th place whereas fellow junior Tyler Miller came in at number 23 with a time of 17:29.
FOOTBALL
With two of the top teams in the league squaring off against one another, it was billed as one of the top games to watch under Friday night lights at Neffsville.
Though the Streaks outscored the Wilson Bulldogs 13-6 in the second half, they couldn't overcome a 29-3 halftime deficit and suffered their second straight loss to a Section One rival. Wilson held on to win 35-16.
The Blue Streaks (5-3; 3-2 in league) were coming off a tough 28-18 loss to Penn Manor last week. On Friday, the Comets picked up a little more steam toward hopes of making the District Three Class-AAAA playoffs as they edged Warwick 14-12.
Garrett Perau's 32-yard field goal would give Township its only points of the first half. At the time that the drizzle-dotted pigskin sailed through the uprights, the Blue Streaks were only down 7-3. Wilson had scored on Nick Greth's 1-yard run.
Wilson quarterback Zach Zweizig zipped the ball to Patrick O'Brien for a 19-yard TD pass that made it 14-3 before the end of the first quarter. Zweizig completed eight of 14 pass attempts for 217 yards, including a 56-yard pass to Shane Witmyer and a 38-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Panghulan.
Brian Sourber finally got the Blue Streaks into the end zone. In fact, he did it twice with touchdown runs of 16 and 1 in the third quarter. The Blue Streaks trailed by 13 points heading into the fourth quarter. Sourber, who also had a fumble recovery, compiled 183 rushing yards on 35 carries on the night.
But the Blue Streaks could not get any closer. Wilson linebacker Erik Schmeck's 49-yard return of a turnover capped off the scoring.
The Streaks will visit McCaskey next week while the Bulldogs will try to remain unbeaten in another big Section One clash against Penn Manor.
FIELD HOCKEY
In their District Three Class-AAA Play-in game on Friday, the Blue Streaks came up just short at Solanco. The Golden Mares claimed a 2-1 victory as district play got underway.
Sophomore forward Michelle Relin scored for Township 11:35 into the second half, evening the score at 1-1. The Blue Streaks out-shot the Golden Mares 12-7 and goalie Amanda Hooven made five saves while minding the Township net.
Solanco got goals from seniors Tricia Jackson and Michelle Breniser with assists from Kathy Ault and Mary Atkins.
VOLLEYBALL
The Blue Streaks blasted by Cocalico 3-0 on Monday and wrapped up the regular season the following night with a 3-2 loss at home to Penn Manor. The Blue Streaks finished the regular season at 6-4 as they prepared for the L-L League playoffs.
In Monday's victory, the Blue Streaks put scores of 25-11, 25-17 and 25-21 on the scoreboard as the Eagles closed the winning margin with each game.
Junior Carey Schlager had six aces to lead Township. Sophomore Devon Schneider poured in nine kills and freshman Alex Ross had two blocks to lead the team.
The seesaw battle against the visiting Comets on Monday showcased Township's tenacity despite being down a game twice in the match.
The Comets opened with a 25-14 win. But Township evened the score with a 25-19 win. Penn Manor again pulled ahead after a 25-21 victory. But in a tight game, the Blue Streaks pulled off a 25-20 win to send it into the tie-breaking fifth game. There, the Comets hung on for a 15-12 victory.
Ross had seven blocks to lead her team in this one. Senior Laurane Lucas led the Blue Streaks with 12 kills while junior Tricia Frey served a team-leading four aces.
Leading Penn Manor and everyone on the court in kills was junior Ellie Raush, who poured in 21 kills.
Manheim Township will actually be the site of the L-L League semi-finals and finals this coming week. Whether or not the Blue Streaks will be playing in those rounds depends on how they fare against Conestoga Valley in the opening round of the playoffs.
In Monday's quarterfinals at Conestoga Valley, the host Lady Bucks, who won the Section Two title by beating Garden Spot in a tiebreaker, will play Township. It'll be the second game of a double-header, which will feature Garden Spot and Warwick in the opener.
Also on Monday, Lancaster Mennonite will be the site for quarterfinal matches between Ephrata and the home team as well as Hempfield and Manheim Central.
