Ephrata blanks Warwick

It's only natural to assume that Josh Peifer's idea of the perfect day on the soccer field would entail doing very little.

Maybe just barking a few words of direction or encouragement to the defenders in front of him once in a while, in between cleaning up an occasional uneventful crossing pass.

But for Ephrata's senior goalie, that's hardly the case.

"I'd rather be in there playing like a wild man," Peifer admitted with a grin. "I'd rather be all over the place."

Good thing for Ephrata, he was Tuesday night.

Sparked by Tom Renko's game-winning goal 4:47 into the match, and a sterling 11-save performance from Peifer that enabled that goal to stand up, Ephrata went on to notch a 2-0 L-L League Sections One-Two crossover victory over Warwick in Lititz.

The win kept the unbeaten Mountaineers (5-0-1 Sections One and Two, 8-0-1 overall) in first place in Section Two.

Warwick (4-2, 5-3), which entered Tuesday tied for the lead in Section One, fell into third in that section, three points behind Hempfield (5-1 Sections One and Two) and one point behind Manheim Township (4-1-1).

Not that things couldn't have worked out a whole lot differently.

In fact, by game's end Tuesday, the Warriors held a 17-10 shot advantage, a 7-2 edge in corners, and had created nine quality scoring chances to Ephrata's four.

But all no to avail, thanks in large part to Peifer, and an Ephrata defense that kept Warwick's standout junior midfielder Andrew Wenger under control.

"Josh had a great game," Warwick coach Dale Stoltzfus conceded of Peifer. "The 80 minutes he had to be in there, he was there for his team. It's frustrating as all get out for (us) to play that well and ... ."

Equally frustrating was falling behind 1-0 before the game was five minutes old, thanks to Renko's perfectly placed, 30-yard rainbow from the right side, that curled over the outstretched hands of backpedalling Warwick goalie Brent Basehoar (five saves) and inside the left post.

"That (goal) put us through the roof," Peifer said.

Playing virtually dead-even with Warwick in the first half, Ephrata eventually doubled its advantage with 12:07 left before the break, when the leftovers of Tyler Phillips's hard shot from the right wing were punched into the left side by junior midfielder Noah Passage.

"It was real important for us to make a statement," said Ephrata coach Rob Deininger, whose team will close out a grueling week by hosting Township Thursday and playing at Hempfield Saturday.

Still, perhaps the biggest statement was made by Peifer, who, in three-minute span midway through the first half, knocked away two huge blasts from Wenger and punched a soft-but-dangerous header from the Warriors' Johnny Santos off the goal line to preserve the Mounts lead.

But it was only the beginning of a long night for Peifer, which intensified when Ephrata went with a more defensive strategy after halftime.

With 19:50 left in the game, Peifer made a diving catch save on the goal line to thwart a header by Warwick's Chris Hall. With 15:02 remaining, he punched Wenger's hard roller through traffic wide left. And with 5:10 remaining, he punched away an 18-yard bullet from the Warriors' Ian Schmid.

"It was fun," Peifer said afterward, still soaked in sweat.

In other words, all in a night's work. The kind of night Peifer loves.