Mounts tie with Buckskins
- 08 October 2010
Dave Hartlaub could understand the emotion.After all, he'd just watched his guys build a 11-3 shot advantage and a 6-1 edge in corners over the last 90 minutes, only to get nothing out of it.
"In between the (first and) second overtime (periods), their body language showed frustration," Conestoga Valley's boys' soccer coach said of his players Thursday afternoon. "So I said let's turn that into a mental attitude that (a goal is) coming. It's going to come."
It never did.
Then again, they all too often don't against Ephrata.
Despite putting tons of pressure of Ephrata's defensive third over a span of 100 minutes, CV was forced to settle for a 0-0 double-overtime tie with the Mountaineers in a clash of L-L League Section Two leaders Thursday afternoon in windswept Witmer.
The tie enabled the Buckskins (10-1-2 L-L, 11-2-2 overall) to keep the outright Section Two lead -- three points ahead of Ephrata (9-2-2, 10-3-2) -- with three regular-season games remaining.
"Better than a loss," Hartlaub said afterward. "We still hold the key to the rest of the (section) season. We just keep winning and the season's over.
"But," Hartlaub added a minute earlier, "(Ephrata coach Rob Deininger) always finds a way to get (standings) points out of us."
Nothing new in this dated rivalry.
Truth is, after winning four straight Section Two titles from 2004-2007, Ephrata has watched CV capture the last two.
And considering the two teams had already battled to a 2-2 double-overtime tie in Ephrata earlier this season, Thursday's result shouldn't come as a shock.
Even if -- while calling them "scoring opportunities" might be a bit of a stretch -- the Buckskins managed to put together 13 dangerous offensive assaults to Ephrata's three by game's end.
Not an uncommon theme for the defensive-minded Mounts, who have given up a mere six goals in 13 regular-season games, including nine shutouts.
"They have an awful lot of speed and technical ability," Deininger said of CV. "And we have some things that can offset those things and make it even."
Despite getting nothing out of dangerous shots by Tyler Martin and Robbie Cardina in the second half, or Jon Kumher's dribble-drive through four Ephrata defenders in the box that ended with him firing an open look just over the crossbar, CV came within millimeters of unevening the score with 4:00 left in the second OT.
After dribbling down the left side of the box, Bucks' striker Alec Denlinger turned at the end line and fired a rising shot that was initially caught on the near post by Ephrata goalie Brooks Carr (nine saves).
But a second later, the ball squirted out of Carr's grasp and onto the goal line, where it bounced unattended for seconds before finally being cleared by an Ephrata defender.
CV thought the ball cleared the plain. The ref didn't.
"The refs are there to do their job," Hartlaub said. "And we just have to live with it."
Sounds a little bit like CV's take on Ephrata too, after all these years.
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