Boys soccer update

(Photo by Chris Bradley).

The E-town boys soccer team lost to Hempfield at home last night, 2-1. It was the first loss for the Bears in nearly three weeks.

E-town was playing without Kevin Romanauskas and Ryan Sostack, who missed the game with illnesses, and their presence in the midfield was missed. The Black Knights were all over the Bears in the first half, controlling the action for the most part and keeping the Bears from getting anything going offensively – E-town did not record a shot or a corner in the half. Hempfield got an early goal from Ryan Rohrer and scored again 10 minutes later on a goal from Caleb Kendig. Both times, the Hempfield player dribbled around defenders in the box and earned open shots on goal.

But in the second half, E-town picked up the intensity and played much better. They got a goal with three minutes left from defender Shane Long off of a long throw in by Jason Good. Long held the back post very well on the play, and when the ball got through to him, he buried it. At the time of Long's goal, E-town was playing a man down after Mitch Capelli was given a hard red card for tripping. And with 1:23 to play, Brian Savage was also given a red card, putting the Bears at a two-man disadvantage. Capelli and Savage will both now be unable to play in E-town's next game on Monday, when E-town travels to face McCaskey.

The good news for E-town is that the loss did not hurt them in the section standings. Had the Bears beaten Hempfield, they would have taken over first place in the section as Ephrata lost to Manheim Township. But as it stands now, E-town remains in second place, one point behind the Mounts.

Here are the Section Two standings as of today, as well as scores from last night's games. There are only six regular season games left, so it looks like the section race will get very interesting and is a four-team race at this point.

Ephrata: 7-2 (21 points)
E-town: 6-2-2 (20 points)
Garden Spot: 6-3-1 (19 points)
Conestoga Valley: 5-3-2 (17 points)
Solanco: 1-9 (3 points)
Lebanon: 0-10 (0 points)

Last night's scores:
Hempfield 2, E-town 1
Manheim Township 4, Ephrata 2
Garden Spot 7, Penn Manor 2
Conestoga Valley 7, McCaskey 0
Warwick 3, Lebanon 0
Cedar Crest 4, Solanco 3 (OT).