Township slips past Ephrata

"I'm happy with the result... advancing is the name of the game here," Manheim Township head coach Dave Ammon said. "But I feel that quality is important for taking it to the next round and I wasn't pleased with our quality in the second half."

For the second consecutive Saturday, it was senior Justin Brown delivering a game-winning goal. Unlike last Saturday, when Brown gave the Blue Streaks a 2-1 double-overtime win over Manheim Central in the Lancaster-Lebanon League championship, Brown found the net in the waning minutes of the first half.

With just under five minutes to go, Township had multiple chances to fire off a shot during a flurry of activity around the top 18-yard box. Ephrata managed to clear the ball, only to see the Streaks send it back into the right corner.

Junior Nick Baron collected the pass and sent a crossing pass into the box. Brown jumped and managed to get enough of his head on it to redirect it past Mountaineer keeper Josh Peifer for the game's lone goal.

"On that play we were lucky that once it popped out, we made one touch and serviced the ball back in," Ammon said. "That opened up a little bit of room for Justin and he made a fantastic play to get his head on it. Baron made the perfect cross, too."

It was one of just a few opportunities for the Blue Streaks all night. Credit the Ephrata gameplan for forcing Township to play a different style than it wanted.

"You have to give credit to Ephrata," Ammon said. "They put a lot more pressure on in the second half than they did in the first and that pushed us into a game the type of game we aren't really used to playing. We got out of our possession game and it was difficult for us to make four, five or six passes in a row."

"We played much better tonight than we did the first time (a 1-0 loss Sept. 20)," Ephrata head coach Rob Deininger said. "We didn't want to give them good looks at the net and we really didn't. They had a nice flick goal and we just couldn't get back in time."

But as good as the Ephrata defense was, it was the Township defense and goalie Chris Zielinski that was better, holding Ephrata to just six shots.

"The difficulty is for us to get through their defense," Deininger said. "And we had a couple opportunities... . I was extremely pleased with how we performed and how we pressured them."

For top-seeded Township, it will be their fourth straight trip to the District semifinals. The last three trips resulted in championships.

"It's never routine and the reason for that is it's a different group of kids," Ammon said. "They have a goal to win districts again and its been really different from the three previous groups ahead of them."