Township turns back Mounts
- 02 October 2009
The Ephrata Mounts boys soccer team visited Neffsville on Thursday night, as the Manheim Township Blue Streaks played host to the Mounts.Unfortunately for the Mounts, the Blue Streaks took this contest 4-0.
Forgive Dave Ammon for looking ahead to the postseason.
But when your team has won the last five Lancaster-Lebanon League titles and is currently in first place in Section One with two weeks left in the regular season, it's fair to say he's earned that right at this point.
"We've been talking a lot lately about getting better," Manheim Township's boys' soccer coach said Thursday night. "The regular season is important, but we've got to work on the things that are going to carry us in late October and early November."
Unfortunately for Ephrata, Township might have hit a turning point Thursday night.
Dominating the possession from the opening touch, the Blue Streaks got the game winner from junior midfielder Don Burton 10:06 into the match, and cruised to a 4-0 L-L Sections One-Two victory over Ephrata in Neffsville.
The win keeps Township (9-1 L-L, 10-1 overall) in first-place in Section One, three points ahead of Hempfield (8-2, 8-3), with six regular-season games remaining.
Ephrata (5-3, 6-3-2) remained in second place in Section Two.
Although, as valuable as Thursday's win was for the Streaks, equally important to Ammon was that his guys started to show signs of improving on a list of issues they've been addressing of late.
"We've been working on some things in training that we did well tonight," Ammon said. "Tempo of possession, finding combinations up front (on offense) and switching the ball from side to side (on the field)."
It didn't take long to get results.
Approximately 10 minutes into the game, Township senior midfielder John Grosh uncorked a blast from the left wing that Ephrata goalie Brooks Carr was able to save.
But when Luke Oostdyk collected the leftovers on the left side of the box and nudged a centering pass to Burton, who punched a low bullet into the right side of the net, the Blue Streaks had all they'd need.
"They were fabulous," Ephrata coach Rob Deininger said of Township. "When you play them on their field, with their skill and speed ... once they get going, you're just chasing."
And so it went.
In the first half alone, the Blue Streaks outshot Ephrata 9-4, built a 4-0 edge in corners and created 11 scoring chances to the Mountaineers' one.
By game's end, Township had a 17-4 advantage in shots and a 6-2 edge in corners.
Still, with 3:00 left before the break, the Streaks were still clinging to that 1-0 lead, which wasn't doing Ammon's nerves any favors.
"It was that old feeling of we were keeping them in the game," Ammon said.
Unfortunately for Ephrata, the Mounts took themselves further out of the game with 2:35 left in the first half, when a misdirected defensive clear in its own box resulted in an own goal that put Township ahead 2-0.
"That own goal right before the half really shot us," Deininger said. "But hey, tonight, (the Streaks) were the better team."
Township eventually padded its lead with second-half goals from Oostdyk and senior midfielder Kirby Kinderwater.
Ephrata goalkeeper Brooks Carr makes one of his seven saves on Township
striker Luke Oostdyk, who had a goal and an assist. © Suzette Wenger / Intelligencer
Truth is, but for seven huge saves from Carr and a clutch defensive clear off the goal line from Ephrata's Darren Burkholder 17:10 into the first half, it could have been worse.
"I'm feeling much better now (about the Streaks' development) than I was a couple of weeks ago," Ammon said of his team afterward. "The guys' effort has been fantastic."
Certainly looked that way Thursday.
We here at www.ephratamounts.com are proud sponsors of the Dodgeball for Diabetes tournament.