Section Four champions!

The Pequea Valley girls' soccer team bounced back from a tough loss in a crucial late-season match with Annville-Cleona to win its final two games and earn the section title.

"We needed to beat Northern Lebanon on the final day to win the section outright," said head coach Steve Morris. "We had at least a co-championship though, which is a first for Pequea Valley girls' soccer."

Looking back at that Annville game, the Dutchmen met the Braves at Pequea Valley on Friday, October 8. The Braves came into that match 7-0-0 in Lancaster-Lebanon League play while A-C was 6-2-0.

Annville-Cleona's 2-0 victory inched the Dutchmen closer to the top.

"We made it interesting for ourselves," Morris said, describing the standings following that loss. "It was one of those nights where we didn't play to the best of our ability. Sometimes there are games like that."

The Braves were coming off an exciting 3-2 overtime victory over Lancaster Country Day at Pequea on Wednesday, October 6. It was Senior night and senior Emily Diller won that game on a free kick in the waning seconds of the first extra period.

"There were about 40 seconds left in the first overtime," Morris explained. "There was a foul about 30 yards out. Emily set the ball and her kick had a bend to it. Their goalie was moving toward it, but with the bend Emily gave it, she got it into the net.

"Their goalie had a good game," Morris added, giving a nod to LCD's Florence Schaumann, who went the distance and made 22 saves. Maddy Weaver had three saves for the Braves.

Speaking of Senior Night heroes, Deena Stoltzfus scored the game-tying goal with about five minutes left in regulation. Senior Elena Esh scored one at the midway mark of the first half. Diller and Sierra Fisher each registered an assist.

The home stretch required the Braves to hang on to their slim first-place lead by playing two road games in three days. On October 11, they edged Lancaster Catholic 2-1 in a night game as Esh and freshman Morgan Graham each scored.

"Morgan Graham is a freshman who had a hat trick for us this year," Morris said. "In section play, she leads our team in points - seven goals and three assists. She is talented and has done very well."

The return of Caroline Fisher also helped the Braves. The Pequea senior scored one of the team's goals in the 2-1 victory at Northern Lebanon. Esh scored the other goal while Diller dished out both assists.

FOOTBALL

Peyton Temple threw for 141 yards and Darrel Beiler rushed for 70 yards and two touchdowns as the Braves put up 21 points on Friday night, October 8, at Annville-Cleona.

In the L-L League contest, the Dutchmen had burst out of the gate with 33 points and managed to hold on for a 55-21 win, improving to 3-3 (2-0 league) while the Braves fell to 1-5 (0-2 league).

In the first half, the Dutchmen scores included three big plays - Gavin Keller's 75-yard touchdown pass to Ethan Missimer and Rogan Harter's touchdown runs of 75 and 45 yards.

The Braves got on the scoreboard in the second quarter on Beiler's four-yard surge into the endzone. Temple hit Jonathan Carter with a nine-yard TD toss later in the period, cutting the deficit to 33-13.

Beiler added another score in the second half, taking a handoff and bulldozing toward the endzone from five yards out. Temple's pass to Billy Johnson was the two-point conversion.

BOYS' SOCCER

The final two games on the Pequea Valley boys' soccer season featured six goals by two goal scorers.

And the first such match with a multi-goal scorer also resulted in the Braves claiming the Section Four championship with a 4-2 defeat of Lancaster Catholic.

"It's great to be a Brave," head coach Peter Bennett remarked, when reminded that the girls' team also won the section title.

Nevin Stoltzfus scored all four of his team's goals, leading the boys' soccer team to an exciting 4-2 defeat of Lancaster Catholic on Monday, October 11 at home.

Stoltzfus poked the ball through the Crusaders' defense twice in the first half and two more times in the second half. After giving his team a 1-0 lead a minute into the match, he made it 2-0 at the 10-minute mark. He scored again in the 68th minute and once more with two minutes to play.

Jackson Neff, Peyton Leitch and Dylan Ratjavong each provided an assist.

Pequea goalies faced twice as many shots as Crusader goalie Nathan Hummer, who had two saves. Jazae Itegi snagged nine saves for the Braves. Gabe McDonald had one save.

Peyton Leitch scored two times in a 2-0 shutout of York Catholic in a non-league match two days later.

The goalkeeping duties were split between Itegi and McDonald.

"Gabe McDonald played the second half and made a big save on a penalty kick to keep it 2-0," Bennett noted.

The Braves finished 8-2-0 in league play and 13-4-1 overall.

As the regular season wrapped up, the Braves were sixth in the District Three Class-AA power rankings.

GOLF

In the District Three Class AA Golf Championships at Briarwood, Pequea Valley's Matthew Lapp and Kyle Ebersol missed the cut for the PIAA state qualifications. Lapp shot a 13-over-par 85 on his first day of competition. He shot a 92 the following day.

Ebersol shot an 86 in the first round.