I had the thrill last week of traveling to Hanover to watch our varsity soccer team of Lititz Christian School play in the Nighthawk Soccer Tournament. Below is a report of the games of that weekend from head coach, Eric Lewis:
What a weekend! I must admit that Saturday tournament at Hanover High School was the most exciting and most rewarding experience of my coaching career thus far! Our boys played at such a high level with such integrity that it drew the attention of opposing fans and the Hanover athletic director. Jesus was represented well by our athletes – To Him be the Praise! Allow me to summarize both games for you.
Tournament Semifinal, LCS: 3, Hanover: 2 – The bus arrived late, which only gave us 10 minutes to stretch and be ready for kickoff at 9 a.m. The first half was fast and furious as all five goals were scored in the opening forty minutes. Colin Shenk scored his first career goal in the 6th minute which had tied the score at one. Xander Bernhardt added a 15th minute strike and Tyler Hollinger finished our scoring in the 40th minute, literally three seconds before the halftime whistle. Senior co-captain, Spencer Martin assisted the latter two goals. Our defense tightened up in the 2nd half and held the Hawks scoreless to win our first ever game against a public school opponent.
Tournament Final, LCS: 3, Biglerville: 3 (LCS wins on pk’s 4-2) – Having defeated the hosts in the morning, we were now ready to play our third game in 18 hours, which just happened to be for a championship against a quality Biglerville side. Biglerville has reached the District III quarterfinals in each of the last three years. Again, we started the game firing with three goals in the first half. Andrew Zook netted two and Xander Bernhardt had one to give us a 3-1 halftime lead. Tyler Hollinger assisted on all three of our goals. Fatigue began to set in the 2nd half as the humidity and the number of game played took their toll. Biglerville scored two goals to even up the score and send us into overtime. Zach Strenger had come up huge in the second half to keep the game tied with some acrobatic saves in net. In the OT, recognizing our fatigue and that we had the better keeper, we adjusted the formation and packed it in to play for penalty kicks. That is not usually our philosophy, but all three coaches knew that our boys were out of gas. So, we did pack it in and the penalty kicks, fortunately, fell the way we had hoped. It was almost poetic when Zach Strenger scored the winning PK to seal our championship and earn him Tournament MVP honors. The heart of this team was proven in the heat and humidity on Saturday. As coaches, we hope that they can now draw from that experience to continue to elevate their game to a level that sends us deep into the postseason.
Our boy’s varsity soccer team lost a tough victory last Tuesday night to conference rival, Mt Calvary Christian School from Elizabethtown. This frops the team’s overall record to 4-1 (2-1 in the CCAC Conference). The next two soccer games for LCS are on the road at Berks Christian (Sept 18) and at Lancaster Christian (Sept 20). The next home game for the Eagles is Sept 21 against Carson Long Military Academy.
What a weekend! I must admit that Saturday tournament at Hanover High School was the most exciting and most rewarding experience of my coaching career thus far! Our boys played at such a high level with such integrity that it drew the attention of opposing fans and the Hanover athletic director. Jesus was represented well by our athletes – To Him be the Praise! Allow me to summarize both games for you.
Tournament Semifinal, LCS: 3, Hanover: 2 – The bus arrived late, which only gave us 10 minutes to stretch and be ready for kickoff at 9 a.m. The first half was fast and furious as all five goals were scored in the opening forty minutes. Colin Shenk scored his first career goal in the 6th minute which had tied the score at one. Xander Bernhardt added a 15th minute strike and Tyler Hollinger finished our scoring in the 40th minute, literally three seconds before the halftime whistle. Senior co-captain, Spencer Martin assisted the latter two goals. Our defense tightened up in the 2nd half and held the Hawks scoreless to win our first ever game against a public school opponent.
Tournament Final, LCS: 3, Biglerville: 3 (LCS wins on pk’s 4-2) – Having defeated the hosts in the morning, we were now ready to play our third game in 18 hours, which just happened to be for a championship against a quality Biglerville side. Biglerville has reached the District III quarterfinals in each of the last three years. Again, we started the game firing with three goals in the first half. Andrew Zook netted two and Xander Bernhardt had one to give us a 3-1 halftime lead. Tyler Hollinger assisted on all three of our goals. Fatigue began to set in the 2nd half as the humidity and the number of game played took their toll. Biglerville scored two goals to even up the score and send us into overtime. Zach Strenger had come up huge in the second half to keep the game tied with some acrobatic saves in net. In the OT, recognizing our fatigue and that we had the better keeper, we adjusted the formation and packed it in to play for penalty kicks. That is not usually our philosophy, but all three coaches knew that our boys were out of gas. So, we did pack it in and the penalty kicks, fortunately, fell the way we had hoped. It was almost poetic when Zach Strenger scored the winning PK to seal our championship and earn him Tournament MVP honors. The heart of this team was proven in the heat and humidity on Saturday. As coaches, we hope that they can now draw from that experience to continue to elevate their game to a level that sends us deep into the postseason.
Our boy’s varsity soccer team lost a tough victory last Tuesday night to conference rival, Mt Calvary Christian School from Elizabethtown. This frops the team’s overall record to 4-1 (2-1 in the CCAC Conference). The next two soccer games for LCS are on the road at Berks Christian (Sept 18) and at Lancaster Christian (Sept 20). The next home game for the Eagles is Sept 21 against Carson Long Military Academy.
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