This and that

(Freshman Audrey Bamford will be a Bear to watch at this weekend's Lancaster-Lebanon League Track and Field meet. Photo by Chris Bradley).

Here are a few tidbits I wanted to throw out on a gray Thursday afternoon.

Girls Soccer:
For all intents and purposes, it appears that the Lady Bears will begin play in the District Three tournament on Monday night at home against Governor Mifflin. This is NOT official yet – first round pairings will be released tomorrow. But looking at the latest D3 power rankings, it looks like that will be E-town's matchup for its first district game.

The Mustangs are currently the 21st-ranked team, with a record of 7-7-3. E-town is 12th at 13-3-1. These two teams also matched up in districts last year, with E-town winning 2-1. More on this game in the days to follow (if indeed that is the matchup).

While we're talking about girls soccer, here are a few notes on E-town's loss to CV on Tuesday night in the first round of the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs.
• I was impressed by CV's defensive discipline. They limited E-town's amazing ability to possess the ball and put together strings of passes. They also did a good job of against Courtney Peffley and Katie Leverentz (E-town's top 2 scorers), keeping them away from the action as much as possible.
• Memo to whoever makes CV's uniforms: red numbers on a dark blue jersey are extremely difficult to read. Throw in an outline or something.
• I'll tell you, although CV did an excellent job forcing the Bears away from the playing style they are accustomed to, E-town did a great job of playing hard. This is a good group that never gives up and never, ever stops going hard. In particular, Dani Faller plays with her foot on the gas at ALL times in the middle of the field. She was out for the overtimes due to an injury, and her presence was missed. She is definitely a full-throttle player.
• CV may have been organized on defense, but they weren't very aggressive in the midfield. E-town routinely beat them to 50/50 balls.
• I think the loss to CV is just a setback for this E-town team. They are a talented bunch, and have what it takes to do well in districts and possibly get to states. If only they could avoid those pesky overtime games.
• Here's a scary thought: E-town has only TWO seniors on this team – LJ Funck and Erin Kurtz. Funck has been the team's rock on defense for years and will be tough to replace next year, but the Bears will be scary good next year as well.

Track and Field
The L-L meet is tomorrow (although the weather report doesn't look promising). Things get underway at Hempfield at 4 p.m. and continue Saturday at 10 a.m.

On the girls side, expect big things from Audrey Bamford in the high hurdles, high jump and the long jump. She'll qualify for districts in at least one of those events, and possibly all three of them.

Here is a list of the E-town girls that are in the top six on the L-L League Honor Roll, as of Sunday, May 4.

100: 6. Ann Romanuaskas, 12.6 (leader at 12.1).
100 Hurdles: 3. Audrey Bamford, 15.4 (leader at 15.2).
400 Relay: 5. Bailey Davis, Theta Cleis, Chelin Gallagher and Amanda Hershey, 52.3 (leaders at 50.3).
Shot Put: 5. Kirsten Hayes, 37-3-1/2 (leader at 39-5).
Long Jump: 3. Audrey Bamford, 16-10-1/2 (leader at 17-9-1/2).
High Jump: 5. Audrey Bamford, 5-3 (leader at 5-6).

For the boys, here is the L-L Honor Roll (again, as of May 4). Expect big things from Jordan Hallman, Dustin Horning, Larrian Payne, Josh McMaster.

100: 2. (four-way tie) Jordan Hallman, 10.8 (leader at 10.6).
200: 3. Jordan Hallman, 22.2 (leader at 21.9).
1,600: 2. Dustin Horning, 4:28.7 (leader at 4:19.03).
1,600 Relay: 3. John Romain, Greg Crawford, Josh McMaster, Jordan Hallman, 3:27.32 (leaders at 3:20.05).
High Jump: 5. Larrian Payne, 6-4-1/4 (leader at 6-11).


One last thing. I really have no qualms with giving one of my "competitors" a plug when they write a good piece. Ed Gruver of the Intelligencer put out a nice story today on Erick Baker and the EAHS baseball team. Here's a link.

Nice story by Ed on a great kid.

That's all for now, E-town. Until next time, stay classy.

Cheers.