By Greg Schneider
The Donegal boys soccer team, looking perhaps to reap some of the accolades that the Indian girls' team has been showered with the past two seasons, earned its first berth in the District Three playoffs since 1988 and turned in an excellent performance last week, posting a pair of shutout victories before seeing its run end in a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to number two seeded Fleetwood on Saturday afternoon.
The Indians, 10th seeded in the tournament, opened their tournament with a play-in match at home last Monday against 23rd seed Kutztown and, showing no playoff jitters in their first district appearance in over 20 years, dominated the Cougars 4-0.
Despite tripling-up Kutztown, 9-3, in shots in the match and forcing a slim 2-1 edge in corner kicks, the Indians had to settle for a narrow, 1-0, lead at the intermission before exploding for a hat trick in the second half to put the game away.
The Tribe got what proved to be the game-winner with 13:10 left in the first half on a nice hook-up between Colton Houseal and Griffin Libhart. Houseal launched a 40-yard boomer across the mid-field stripe to Libhart who gathered in the pass and took it another 30 yards or so on a breakaway, before driving a seven-yarder into the net to put the Indians up 1-0.
The Indian defense, anchored by Adam Forster in goal, made Libhart's goal stand up until Taylor Frankhauser doubled the Donegal lead to 2-0 with an open-net goal 13:48 into the second half.
Frankhauser's goal was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Asher Johnson set the goal up with a blast on goal that rebounded of the Cougar keeper right to Frankhauser, who had only to redirect it into the vacated net for the score.
The goal put the Indians in solid command and a goal by Houseal 17 minutes later removed any remaining doubt as to the outcome. Houseal headed a corner kick into the net to make it 3-0 with 9:22 remaining in the match.
Houseal also figured in Donegal's final goal of the match when he took a long ball from 40 yards out and tapped it across to Chris Royer, who eased it past the Cougar keeper to make it 4-0 and end the evening's scoring with 5:21 left on the match clock.
Forster finished the night a perfect three-for-three on the Kutztown tries to pick up the shutout in goal for the Indians.
The play-in victory put the Indians into the main bracket round of 16 where they faced a very familiar opponent in Lancaster Mennonite at Mennonite on Wednesday.
With their first district win now under their belts, the Indians went into the match with the Blazers with a healthy dose of confidence, while still knowing the contest would not be an easy one. Back on October 5 the Indians visited Mennonite, the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Four champion, in their regular-season section-crossover match and, despite being outshot, 7-3, and outcornered, 4-3, came away with a 1-0 win in overtime.
This district match turned out to be very similar as the Blazers again won the statistical battle, outgunning the Tribe, 9-4, and kicking a slim 4-3 edge in corners, but came up short once again on the scoreboard, 2-0, as Donegal got lone goals early in both the first and second halves.
Houseal was again in the midst of the action as he notched both of the Indians' goals, one on an assist from Duane Brackbill and one unassisted.
Brackbill and Houseal hooked up on a pretty play to net what would prove to be the match winner early in the opening half. Brackbill put a perfect air-ball cross from the left side to Houseal, who was stationed at the top of the box and one-touched it past Mennonite goalie Curtis Ranck to put the Tribe on the board just 2:03 into the match.
Again the Indians made the one-goal lead stand up into the second half, where Houseal, like Frankhauser in the match with Kutztown, was in the right place at the right time to add the second goal. Houseal, apparently fruitlessly following a long ball that should have been a routine pickup for Ranck, instead found himself the recipient of a gift after Ranck and a teammate collided when they both went for the ball. Neither Blazer accomplished their desired task and, when the ball caromed to Houseal, he found nothing in front of him but an empty net and he did not miss it.
Houseal's goal, just 1:07 into the second half, proved to be unneeded as the Indian defense again turned in a solid performance to keep the Blazers off the board and drop the curtain on their 15-4-2 season. Forster had four saves in the net to notch his second district shutout.
The win moved the 14-6 Indians into a quarterfinal meeting with Fleetwood, 21-1 and the second seed in the tournament, on Saturday afternoon at Hersheypark Stadium, site of the Donegal girls' PIAA Spring Championship heroics against Lancaster Mennonite last June.
Unfortunately, things did not go as well for the boys as they saw their campaign come to an end as Fleetwood slipped away with the 2-1 overtime victory.
Despite being outgunned by the Tigers, 31-10, and giving up an 11-5 edge in corner kicks, the Indians had a chance to win this one. Houseal, who again was the man in the right spot at the right time, gave the Indians a 1-0 lead in the first half when Fleetwood goalie Eric Houghton mishandled Rohrer's shot on goal and had it dribble out to a wide open Houseal, who again did not misfire on his opportunity at an open goal.
That would be it, however, for the Indians, who saw their season end with a 14-7 record, when the Tigers got a second-half goal on a corner kick from Carter Stein and an overtime sudden-death winner on Adam Berish's header midway through the second overtime.
FIELD HOCKEY
Like the boys soccer team, the Donegal field hockey team got off to a good start in its district play, but unlike the booters, who are hanging up their cleats for the year, the Indian sticksters are still in the hunt for the district title and have already guaranteed themselves a berth in the PIAA state tournament after rolling to a pair of victories last week.
Showing no lingering aftereffects from their 4-2 loss to Penn Manor in the Lancaster-Lebanon League championship match the previous Thursday, the Indians came out last week and racked up a pair of dominant wins. They opened their tournament at Hempfield on Tuesday against Susquenita and were never threatened in a 7-2 romp over the Blackhawks.
The Indians removed the suspense from this one quickly as a hat trick just seven minutes into the match put them comfortably ahead, 3-0. Two more goals in first half and another pair in the second made it 7-1 and sent the Tribe jayvees onto the field for the final 12 minutes.
Laura Gebhart got the rout rolling when she knocked in an unassisted goal just 3:47 into the match and Katie Robinson made it 2-0 when she got a stick on Olivia Leaman's shot and redirected it past Blackhawk goalie Casi Larish just 2:12 later.
The stunned Blackhawks had to be starting to question their possibilities for success in this one and just a little over a minute later they probably knew victory was not an option for them after Kathryn Markovits slapped home a rebound on a Gebhart shot to give the Indians three goals in a span of three minutes and 17 seconds.
But, it would get worse for Susquenita. Gebhart racked home her second goal with a shot from the top of the circle with 15:34 left in the first half and Jenna Hunter made it 5-0 with just 1:11 remaining with a pretty diving poke past Larish, who was also on the ground after making a save.
After the break Gebhart completed her personal hat trick and boosted the Tribe's lead to 6-0 when she pounded one in off a Blackhawk defender's stick with 18:26 left in the match.
Susquenita, who finished with eight shots in the match, finally got on the board with 13:56 left on Emily Martz' goal, but Donegal answered right back on Robinson's goal off a corner just 1:50 later.
Robinson's tally made it 7-1 and brought the Donegal bench onto the field for the rest of the match.
Sarah Hazelton added Susquenita's second goal and closed out the afternoon scoring with 1:10 left in the match.
Jess Garber went the distance in the cage for Donegal and finished with six saves on her eight chances.
The win moved the seventh-seeded Indians into the quarterfinals where they faced number two seed Bermudian Springs on Saturday morning at Hershey High School.
This one went scoreless through the first half, but three unanswered goals in the second half slid it into the Donegal win column as a 3-0 shutout.
Again Gebhart got things started when she dribbled 30 yards up the middle to the top of the circle and let one go that ate up Eagles' goalie Alexis Eisenhart with 21:56 left in the contest.
Sammi Yoder added the second goal of the game to give Donegal some breathing room. Mary Lynam set the goal up, maneuvering past a couple of Eagle defenders before finding Yoder in the circle with a perfect pass that Yoder just tapped past Eisenhart with 13:36 remaining in the match.
Hunter, Yoder and Lynam combined for Donegal's third goal, which settled the issue for good. Lynam worked the ball up from midfield before sending it to the wing to Yoder, who crossed it in front of the goal where Hunter was waiting to deflect it past Eisenhart to make it 3-0 and close out the scoring with 9:57 left.
The Indians outshot the Eagles, 14-3, and tripled them up in corners, 9-3.
Coach Jessica Rose Shellenberger's goalie-by-committee was back in force in this one as Alyssa Gower handled the cage in the first half and Garber took over in the second. Gower did not have to make a save in the first half, while Garber had to stop two shots in the second to complete the shutout.
CROSS COUNTRY
The Donegal cross country team competed in the District Three Championships last Wednesday at Hershey's Parkview Course and had one runner - Jess McDonald - qualify for the PIAA state championships which will be run this Saturday back at Hershey.
McDonald turned in a solid run in the Class AAA race, finishing 38th overall in the field of 312 runners with a time of 21:19. Cumberland Valley's Leigha Anderson won the event in 19:35.
Jenn Ensminger and Anna Keener also ran for Donegal, finishing 259th and 262nd, respectively, with times of 24:47 and 24:48.
Michael Hiestand was the only boy to run for the Indians and turned in a time of 22:30 to place 340th, while battling the flu.
The Indians did not score in the team competition, as they did not have a complete team of five runners.
FOOTBALL
It was simply a matter of too much Aaron Achey last Friday when the Donegal football team visited Elco for its ninth game of the season.
All the Elco quarterback did was rush for 232 yards on 24 carries, pass for 159 yards on a 12-for-23 night, and personally have a hand in 32 of the Raiders' points.
Achey rushed for three touchdowns, passed for another touchdown and even racked up a safety when he sacked Donegal quarterback Matt Kolp in the end zone in the third quarter.
Take Achey out of the equation and the Indians win, 14-12. But, Achey was in the equation and the Raiders rolled to an easy 44-12 victory, their fifth in six Section Three starts and eighth overall.
The Indians, who have struggled offensively all season, had another tough night, finishing with just 166 total yards on 45 yards rushing and 121 passing. Eighty-four of those yards came on their last possession of the first half, a one-play drive that featured a Kolp-to-Michael Shipman 84-yard touchdown pass that got the Indians on the board and made it 21-7 with 5:51 left in the first half.
Achey's 11-yard pass to Eric Ondo with 46 seconds left answered the Indians' touchdown and made it 28-7 at the intermission.
The Raiders added three more touchdowns in the third quarter to up their lead to 44-7 before Donegal would score again in the fourth quarter.
On that series the Indians went 60 yards in six plays, capping the drive with AJ Pacana's four-yard run. Zach Meador added the PAT to make it 44-14 and close out the night's scoring with 9:34 left in the fourth period.
Kolp led the Indians in rushing 29 yards on three carries, while Adam Rohrer (5-10), Johnny Martin (3-7) and Pacana (3-3) also finished with positive yardage.
Through the air Kolp was 3-for-9 with Shipman catching a pair of 94 yards and Martin one for 27.
