Hempfield stayed unbeaten with three more strong showings of its offensive strength in Lancaster-Lebanon League girls' lacrosse action. Actually, sandwiched between the Black Knights' 16-1 defeat of Elizabethtown on Thursday, April 9, and their 18-6 crushing of Lancaster Country Day/Lanc. Catholic was a 23-3 defeat of Dallastown on Saturday morning in a home non-league game. Hempfield's three wins improved the team's record to 6-2 with a perfect 5-0 in league play.

The 16-1 win featured a four-goal game by Kayla Brooks. Brynne Axe also had a hat trick and added an assist while Haylee Eide celebrated goal scoring twice in addition to one assist.

Makenzie Warfel also came through with two goals while Kenna Price netted one goal and assisted on two others. The other goal scorers were Catherine Molitor, Whitney Hershey, and Regan Gillisse.

Eryn Murphy, who made two saves in the E-town game, grabbed six saves versus Dallastown.

Kelsea Dague caught fire in this match, scorching the Wildcats' net five times. Brooks and Eide each had hat tricks with the latter also assisting on two. Hershey, Axe and Gillisse tallied two goals each while Molitor, Warfel, Price, Isabella Masengarb, Abby Gingrich and Jessica Yeand each scored one.

In Monday's match, the Knights took a 10-2 lead into the second half, going on to defeat LCD 18-6.

The offense boasted four players with hat tricks - Gillisse, Brooks and Dague whereas Axe buried five goals into the opponent's net. Dague also dished out two assists. Hershey and Masengarb each finished with one goal while Yeand and Gingrich each recorded an assist.

Murphy finished with eight saves.

BOYS TENNIS

In a clash with league rival Manheim Township, the tennis team fell just short on Wednesday. The Blue Streaks earned a 4-3 win as they won two of three doubles matches.

Alex Cooke and Carson Weigle managed an 8-2 victory at number two doubles for Hempfield.

Eli Worley nearly stole the number one singles away from Luke Welch of MT. After a 6-3 loss in the first set, he eked out a 7-6 (7-0) win before falling short in the third set.

Eric Jordan lost 6-3, 6-3 at second singes while Weigle and Cooke won their singles matches with respective straight set scores of 6-1, 7-6 and 6-2, 7-6.

Hempfield fell to 1-8 (1-4).

In their 7-0 loss to Ephrata two days earlier, the Knights' number three doubles team of Jordan and Gavin Chamberlain came close to claiming a team point in an 8-6 loss. Worley fought hard at number four singles but lost 6-3, 6-4.

Hempfield played two non-league matches at Dallastown on Friday, coming close to notching its second win of the season in the Governor Mifflin match - a 3-2 defeat. The Knights' first match of the day was a 5-0 loss to Dallastown.

BASEBALL

The weekend.

Sometimes it's just what the word suggests - the end of a week. And some weeks do need to come to an end and for a new week to start around the corner from..., yes, the weekend.

Such was the week of April 5 for the Hempfield baseball team. The Knights suffered a tough 10-9 defeat at Manheim Township on Monday followed by a 10-0 loss to Cedar Crest at home, falling to 2-2 on the year. Friday's 5-1 loss at Warwick dropped Hempfield to 1-3 in league play.

The offense, which had managed one run in two games, did put up five runs on Monday, April 12, still falling short at home against non-league foe Dallastown, 11-5. The Wildcats' five-run sixth inning proved to be the difference.

Poor control hurt Hempfield early on - two walks and a hit batsman. The slim 3-2 lead exploded to 11-2 for Dallastown.

Ethan Seitz drove in Stephen Katch, who had doubled. Conner Bitts stroked an RBI single to drive in Peter Fiore. Christian LaBarbera also scored a run.

Hempfield improved to 3-4 (2-3 league) with an offensive explosion of its own - an 18-2 victory over McCaskey on Tuesday.

Austin Dunlap struck out four and earned a mercy-rule abbreviated game at Lancaster.

After a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly plated two Hempfield runs, the flood gates opened on RBI hits off the bats of LaBrbera, Cam Berger and Gavin Constein in the third inning. In all, the Knights scored 10 in the frame.

The other eight runs also came in a big way - all in the fourth frame.

The Knights took advantage of McCaskey walks until Luke Fiore and Peter Fiore each got RBI hits along with Berger, Katch and Andrew Mentzer.

TRACK

In track and field competition at Cedar Crest, the Hempfield boys edged the Falcons 80-70 while the girls' team fell to 0-3 with a 112-38 loss.

Lily Williams and Olivia Wenzel were among the multiple winners for the girls' team. Williams won the 800-meter race with a time of 2:36.9 and joined Molly Siebert, Gabriella Hall and Hiwat Wisotzkey for a win in the 4x800 relay (10:17.3).

Wenzel won both the triple jump (33-5) and the long jump (15-8).

In the boys' field events, Ryan Ciste won both the high jump at 5-10 and the long jump with 20-10.25 while Thomas Minnich's 40-2 triple jump was also first.

With a shot put of 42-10 and a 130-foot discus Russell Hanes won two events.

The 4x800 relay team of Owen Jackson, Aidan Hodge, Chris Titter and David Jackson combined for a winning time of 8:08.6. Tanner Hess took the 100 (11.1) and the 200 (22.7) while Tate Martin took the high hurdles in 16.8.

VOLLEYBALL

The Black Knights surrendered a 2-1 lead at Warwick on Thursday, April 8 as the Warriors won the fourth set 25-21 and the tiebreaker 15-13.

The Knights had won the second and third sets by the same score - 25-21.

Ryan Givens gave Hempfield 15 kills, six blocks and one service ace. Junior Caden Bonner finished with a team high 24 digs while Grant Lorelli poured in 15 kills.

Hempfield fell to 3-1 on the year.

BOYS LACROSSE

The boys' lacrosse team won two close matches this past week, defeating Dallastown 8-7 in overtime on Saturday, April 10, and topping Manheim Township 11-9 on the road April 14.

Max Grube was the leading scorer in both games, scoring four times versus D-town and three more at Township.

Gruber got help from both Ryan Hilton and Jason Hilton, who scored two goals apiece, in the victory against Dallastown.

A.J. McAlpine, who had an assist in the D-town match, scored twice at MT. Dom Nottoli, Ryan Hilton and Zach Antesberger each had a goal and an assist. Single goals came courtesy of Ryan Heuston, Stephen Pitts and Isaiah Martin.

The Wildcats out-shot Hempfield 28-18. Matty Weist made 19 saves against D-town and 18 to secure the close win versus Township.

SOFTBALL

The softball team improved to 4-3 overall with three straight wins since their 1-0 loss to Warwick. The Lady Knights, behind 11 hits, used a 7-1 fourth inning to spark a 9-3 non-league win over Gov. Miffllin Saturday, April 10 and followed that up with amore dominating 12-3 final over Dallastown after scoring in five of the seven innings and pounding out 14 hits.

Back in league play Tuesday, the connected for 11 hits over three innings and plated eight runs in the third to blank a struggling McCaskey squad 15-0.