LebCo Field Hockey Season Update: October 4

Power Rankings are current through October 2, 2022.

     Annville-Cleona Dutchmen 

Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 4

Current Record: 11-3 overall; 6-0 in Section 4 – 1st place

District Power Ranking: #8 A (top 16 qualify for Districts)

Results:

• • • 9-13: Annville-Cleona 7, Solanco 1
    • 9-15: Annville-Cleona 2, Garden Spot 0
    • 9-17: Annville-Cleona 3, East Pennsboro
    • 9-19: Annville-Cleona 3, McCaskey 0
    • 9-21: Annville-Cleona 4, Lancaster Mennonite 3
    • 9-23: Annville-Cleona 5, Northern Lebanon 0
    • 9-24: Bishop McDevitt 3, Annville-Cleona 1
    • 9-27: Annville-Cleona 2, Lancaster Country Day 1
    • 9-29: Annville-Cleona 4, Lancaster Catholic 
    • 10-3: Annville-Cleona 3, McCaskey 2

Season Update: The 2022 Annville-Cleona Field Hockey team began the season 0-2, but have since won 11 of 12 games.  Their only loss in that span was to Bishop McDevitt, which snapped an eight game winning streak.  While she is not the only source of offense for the Dutchmen, leading the way has been junior Grace Francis, which recently earned her LFCU Athlete of the Week honors.  The Dutchmen are currently undefeated in Section 4, but have a tough task ahead in their final four games as they see each opponent for a second time.  Coach Gingrich feels that each of those other teams have continued to improve, something she is reminding her players of as they attempt to finish the regular season as strong as they can.  If A-C continues on its current trajectory, they will not only win the Section, but will also make the District 3 playoffs.

For more on the Annville-Cleona field hockey team, check out the September 28th article that took a closer in-game look at the Dutchmen.

     Cedar Crest Falcons 

Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 2

Current Record: 2-11 overall; 0-6 in Section 2 – 6th place

District Power Ranking: #22 AAA (top 14 qualify for Districts)

Results:

• • • 9-12: Warwick 6, Cedar Crest 0
    • 9-14: Conestoga Valley 4, Cedar Crest 1
    • 9-16: Lampeter Strasburg 2, Cedar Crest 1
    • 9-20: Ephrata 2, Cedar Crest 1
    • 9-22: Elizabethtown 5, Cedar Crest 0
    • 9-26: Donegal 3, Cedar Crest 1
    • 9-28: Manheim Central 6, Cedar Crest 0
    • 10-1: Lampeter Strasburg 2, Cedar Crest 1

Season Update: While this season has not gone according to plan for the Falcons, they have had many respectable showings in their Section 2 matchups, losing most by one goal.  Several injuries have compounded the issues for this Cedar Crest team, although one major advantage is that many younger players are seeing meaningful game time that will help ready them for future seasons.  Aiding this development has been a strong team atmosphere among the members of the team, led by team captains Ashley Lamsom, Hannah Klinger, Hailey Newmaster and Paige Bucher.  In fact, the senior leaders of the team developed the mantra of “Together we can”, as they hope to finish out the season playing hard for one another. Overall, the team has kept a positive attitude, with Coach Arnold expressing that the girls are winning in more ways than could ever be judged by a scoreboard.

Speaking of selfless acts, the Cedar Crest program devoted their game against Donegal to raising awareness of brain cancer and honoring the late State Senator Dave Arnold, a member of the Falcon family (read the full recap here).

   ELCO Raiders  

Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 3

Current Record: 7-6-1 overall; 3-2-1 in Section 3 – 3rd place

District Power Ranking: #16 A (top 16 qualify for Districts)

Results:

• • • 9-13: ELCO 3, Northern Lebanon 1
    • 9-15: ELCO 2, Lancaster Catholic 0
    • 9-19: Cocalico 3, ELCO 0
    • 9-21: ELCO 6, Octorara 0
    • 9-23: ELCO 1, Solanco 0
    • 9-27: ELCO 3, Lebanon 0
    • 9-29: Garden Spot 2, ELCO 0
    • 10-3: ELCO 0, Cocalico 0

Season Update: Following an 0-4 start to the season, the ELCO field hockey team is right back in the thick of the fight with a possible trip to Districts on the line.  They are now playing above .500 and last night tied the same Cocalico team that beat them just two weeks ago.  Their only loss in the last five was to an 11-2 Garden Spot team that is undefeated in Section 3 action.  With four games remaining, including the finale against Garden Spot, ELCO has an excellent opportunity to punch their ticket for the District 3 Tournament.  They have gotten to this point through a solid team effort led by Abby Zwally, Addie Weiler, Kaileen Hibshman, and Kylie Brown.

     Lebanon Cedars

Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 3

Current Record: 1-12 overall; 0-7 in Section 3 – 6th place

District Power Ranking: #25 AAA (top 14 qualify for Districts)

Results:

• • • 9-13: McCaskey 4, Lebanon 0
    • 9-17: Tulpehocken 2, Lebanon 0
    • 9-19: Octorara 5, Lebanon 0
    • 9-21: Solanco 1, Lebanon 0
    • 9-23: Garden Spot 11, Lebanon 0
    • 9-26: Lancaster Mennonite 7, Lebanon 0
    • 9-27: ELCO 3, Lebanon 0
    • 9-29: Cocalico 8, Lebanon 0
    • 10-1: Reading 1, Lebanon 0
    • 10-3: Octorara 2, Lebanon 0

Season Update:  Oftentimes in sports, a win-loss record does not tell the whole story.  This is such a case.  Coming into the season, Coach Thomson was focused on developing her young squad.  The Cedars are becoming more competitive as the players are working hard, using in-game situations and practices to their advantage to learn about the game.  Even in games that would be considered blow outs by most metrics, this Lebanon unit has remained scrappy.  The key will be for them to learn lessons from even the biggest losses.  The Cedars secret weapon, whom Coach Thomson referred to as the “heart and soul” of the team, is sophomore goalkeeper Mya Gonzalez.  On the season, Gonzalez has been peppered with 212 shots, saving an unbelievable 73% of those shots.  It is this type of never quit attitude that has made Lebanon difficult to play, even when other teams have had games well in hand.

     Northern Lebanon Vikings

Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 4

Current Record: 1-8-1 overall: 1-5 in Section 4 – 5th place

District Power Ranking: #32 A (top 16 qualify for Districts)

Results:

• • • 9-13: ELCO 3, Northern Lebanon 1
    • 9-15: Northern Lebanon 0, Octorara 0
    • 9-19: Lancaster Mennonite 5, Northern Lebanon 0
    • 9-21: Northern Lebanon 2, Lancaster Catholic 1
    • 9-23: Annville-Cleona 3, Northern Lebanon 2
    • 9-27: McCaskey 5, Northern Lebanon 0
    • 9-29: Lancaster Country Day 1, Northern Lebanon 0
    • 10-3: Lancaster Mennonite 4, Northern Lebanon 0

Season Update:  While it is true that this Vikings squad has not won much, it is also true that there are many positives for this team.  The team has played well in many games, keeping many of them tight contests even when not coming up on the preferred side of the win column.  One of those games was a one goal loss to an excellent Annville team. A major reason for the competitive nature of this team continues to be the play of senior defender Hope Ritchie, who leads the team in defensive saves.  On the offensive end, junior Miya Neuman leads the team with 2 goals.  Of Northern Lebanon’s remaining four games, two are against opponents by which they lost by one goal, while another is against the Lancaster Catholic team that they beat previously.

   Palmyra Cougars

Mid-Penn Conference – Keystone Division

Current Record: 11-1-2 overall; 5-1-2 in Keystone

District Power Ranking: #1 AA (top 16 qualify for Districts)

 Results:

• • • 9-12: Palmyra 6, Hershey 2
    • 9-15: Palmyra 8, East Pennsboro 0
    • 9-19: Palmyra 0, Lower Dauphin 0
    • 9-21: Palmyra 3, Red Land 1
    • 9-22: Palmyra 2, Manheim Township 0
    • 9-24: Palmyra 5, Garnet Valley 0
    • 9-24: Palmyra 2, Torrey Pines (CA) 1
    • 9-27: Palmyra 1, Mechanicsburg 1
    • 9-29: Hershey 2, Palmyra 1
    • 10-3: Palmyra 9, East Pennsboro 0

Season Update: There is no doubt that the Palmyra Cougars remain among the toughest teams field hockey teams in the country.  After a tremendous showing the MaxPreps National Field Hockey Invitational (click here for the recap), Palmyra rose to #2 in national rankings.  The issue is that the Lady Cougars play in quite possibly the toughest division in the whole United States.  This past week, Palmyra settled for a tie against Mechanicsburg and then came up short against Hershey.  Within the tough week, there are lessons to be learned and according to Coach Harshman the team is making adjustments that will allow them to be sharp in the postseason.  It is no doubt better to lose a game at this point of the season than in the District 3 or PIAA State tournaments.  Prior to last night’s game, the Palmyra team had twelve members who had registered at least one goal.  Leading the way for the offense has been: Katie Lintz (9 goals, 8 assists); Alicia Battistelli (9 goals, 5 assists); Keely Bowers (6 goals, 6 assists); Jovie Weaver (7 goals, 1 assist); Hadley Hoffsmith (5 goals, 2 assists); Olivia Kirkpatrick (5 goals, 2 assists); Avery Russell (4 goals, 3 assists).  A reminder that these stats were prior to the nine goal offensive explosion this squad had last evening.  Palmyra will finish up the regular season with four more contests, including a rematch against Keystone rival Lower Dauphin (#7 PA) and two dangerous L-L teams, Penn Manor (#9 US) and Warwick (#24 PA).

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