"Soccer can be unkind - dominating play sometimes doesn't matter," sounds like it comes from a beginners guide to soccer, but it was actually Elizabethtown head coach James Sostack after his top seeded Bears were bounced from the District 3-3A playoffs courtesy of a 3-2 loss to Lower Dauphin on October 27th.

"It's all about finding the net when the opportunity presents itself," continued Sostack, "As a coach it was a great honor to have such a talented team led by such a great group of senior boys - the day simply was not theirs."

Sostack backed his words with examples pointing out that both of the LD goals in the first half came from bounces that many would consider lucky. Of course, the Falcons still had to convert those opportunities and Vicente Martinez and Astin Lehman did just that, erasing E-town's 2-0 cushion in a few short minutes. Even the game winner can be chalked up to misfortune according to Sostack with a bad clear ball ending up on the foot of LD striker Rees Schrode who happily deposited the ball into the net.

Sostack was quick to give credit to Lower Dauphin. "Hats off to the LD boys for finishing what was provided," said Sostack, "but all who watched the game would agree that Etown had essentially defeated themselves - the bad bounce combined with mental errors created an exit ramp for the #1 seed out of playoffs. A heart-breaking end to the season."

The Bears' control early led to that 2-0 lead with Dax Kelly and Tavan Schoenberger giving and receiving. Schoenberger gets credit for the first score, in the 20th minute, thanks to help from Kelly with the pair flipping sides for the second goal nine minutes later. With the majority of the action on the opposite side of the pitch, Tyler Bell finished with zero saves.

VOLLEYBALL

The boys' soccer team was not alone in seeing their season end on October 27th. The Lady Bear volleyball team dropped their District 3-4A quarterfinal match to Wilson by a 3-1 final with first year head coach Katrina Shelly saying, "I am super proud of this group of girls. I could not have asked for a better group to kick off my first year of coaching."

Elizabethtown opened the match with a thrilling 25-22 win but saw momentum shift in game two with a 25-13 Wilson victory. The Lady Bulldogs kept 'old 'mo' on their side, closing out the match with 25-19 and 25-17 wins. Hailey Oller crossed over the 1000 career assist threshold during the match thanks to her 39 assists. Chloe Merkt added 15 digs, eight kills and one ace while Liz Kerin had 11 kills and one ace. Paige O'Connell matched that one ace while Paige Horst finished with 19 digs.

FOOTBALL

To close for comfort is the best way to describe Elizabethtown's 35-30 win over Ephrata on October 28th. But a win is a win, and the narrow victory puts E-town at 8-2 on the season and earns the Bears their first district playoff berth since 2018.

As the season finale got underway it looked like the Bears were going to run away with the contest, scoring the game's first three touchdowns. Josh Rush and Braden Cummings were responsible for the first two as the pair followed their 44-yard score with a 27-yard strike. Cade Capello (11 carries - 83 yards) added his lone TD, a 16-yard scamper that made it 21-0.

Ephrata ripped off the next three scores, spanning the second and third quarters with a 15-yard Rudy scramble breaking up the Mountaineer run and putting E-town back in front 27-22. Rudy scored what proved to be the game winner with a 29-yard fourth quarter scramble before hitting Cummings for the two-point conversion that made it 35-22. Ephrata added one last score and two-point conversion, but Elizabethtown was able to hold on for the win.

Rudy finished the game with 73 yards rushing and those two important touchdowns and became the program's all-time passing leader, his 304 yards in the game pushing him to 5,306 and past former head coach Andy Breault and his 5,195 yards.

Cummings (eight catches - 186 yards) and Brady Breault (nine catches - 118 yards) covered the receiving while Capello added a team high 83 yards rushing.

If the 8-2 mark and postseason berth is not enough, Rudy and Cummings formed the top QB-WR duo in the L-L this year. Rudy topped the L-L passing charts with 2,733 yards while Cummings posted a L-L high 1,493 receiving yards and 17 TDs.

CROSS COUNTRY

Saturday October 29th was a big day for the cross-country teams with both the boys and girls taking part in the District 3-3A Championship at Big Spring High School.

"I was very excited and happy with the performance at districts," said head coach Ed Barlow, "It is always a big deal when you can get both boys and girls teams to the district AAA championships."

Nine of Elizabethtown's scoring runners finished in the top 100 with Jordan DiRisio leading the way with a PIAA qualifying run of 19:18.9, placing her 12th on the girl's side. Ali Fink (29th - 20:11.4), Lilah Drager (63rd - 20:49.3), Rowan Hess (93rd - 21:24.5) and Jillian Wivell (116th - 21:42.8) pushed the Lady Bears into 10th place in the girls' team standings.

On the boys' side, it was a 9th place finish in the team standings with all five scorers finishing in the top 75 for the day. Nicholas Mascia, who lost one of his shoes in the opening 100 meters, according to Barlow, led the boys with a time of 16:48.8, good enough for 48th place. Jayson Conrad was the next Bear to finish, doing so in 56th place with a time of 16:57.3. Bradley Kreider (69th - 17:08.3), Jackson Kay (73rd - 17:12.0) and Jack Myers (75th - 17:12.4) rounded out the scoring five.

GIRLS' SOCCER

The girls' soccer team also wrapped up their 2022 season, bowing out of the District 3-4A playoffs with a 6-0 quarterfinal loss to Penn Manor on October 29th.

"We were not at the same level as Penn Manor," said head coach Mark Brown, "making too many unforced errors. Their speed and experience showed for long stretches of the game."

That speed and experience edge led to three goals from Carly Keene as well as single scores from Anouk Landgraff, Lily Rineer and Paityn Smith. Keegan Miller finished with eight saves.

"It was a good season, one in which we learned a lot. We will be ready for that level next year," summarized Brown.