The Lancaster Bible women's soccer team saw its chance at a North Eastern Athletic Conference Championship come to an end on Saturday as the Chargers lost to top-seeded Penn St. Berks, 2-0 in the NEAC Semifinals in Reading, Pa. The victorious Nittany Lions advance to the NEAC Final where they will face Penn St. Abington on Sunday at 1 p.m. The loss drops the Chargers to 10-10-1 and the team will now have the chance to compete in the NCCAA Div. I Playoffs if they choose to do so.
How it Happened: Facing the highest scoring team in NCAA Div. III, Lancaster Bible attempted to pack the defense in tight and not allow the Nittany Lions any chance to get their high-powered offense into gear. The Nittany Lions were able to break through just 13:50 into the game thanks to NEAC Player of the Year Dana Sarcinello's 13th goal of the season. From there however, Lancaster Bible's defense was stingy and did not allow many good chances to Penn St. Berks.
Lancaster Bible did not allow a goal the rest of the half and trailed just 1-0 heading into halftime. The problem for the Chargers however was they had no shots in the first 45 minutes and Penn St. Berks controlled the ball almost the entire time. The Chargers continued to play solid defense in the second half and began to play a bit more offense as well as
Kirsten Webster took Lancaster Bible's first shot at the 55:36 mark. The shot was saved, but the Chargers earned a corner kick soon after and did everything they could to get the equalizing goal and still play a solid defensive game.
The Chargers withstood the Nittany Lions' pressure until the 76:50 mark when Caitlin Golden scored her 26th goal of the season to double the Penn St. Berks lead to 2-0. Lancaster Bible had three shots in the final eight minutes, but it was not enough and the Chargers missed out on the NEAC Final for the third straight season.
By the Numbers: Senior goalkeeper
Kaitlyn Scheuing made seven saves in the loss, while Webster and
Alyssa Wesner each had two shots for the Chargers...Sarcinello added the assist on Golden's goal...Penn St. Berks outshot Lancaster Bible, 21-5, but just 9-4 in shots on goal.
The Coach Says: "The girls did exactly what we talked about in practice and Berks just scored two nice goals that ended up being the difference," Lancaster Bible Head Coach
Leah Sipe said. "We sat in to protect ourselves a bit and that certainly hurt us creating offensive chances. Despite that, our defense played great, especially
Maddie Dionne, but really the whole team did a great job of playing defense and reading the play."
Information Hodge Podge: Penn St. Berks leads the all-time series, 7-6...The Nittany Lions will be playing in their fourth straight NEAC Final on Sunday...Lancaster Bible has not played in the NEAC Final since 2012 when they defeated Penn St. Berks, 2-0...Lancaster Bible lost to Penn St. Berks, 6-2 during the regular season...With her seven saves, Scheuing now has 87 this season, the most in any season of her three as a member of the team...Scheuing had 83 saves in 2013 and 84 in 2014.
