When the day started on Tuesday, five Lancaster County girls’ soccer teams were in line to win a state championship.
By sunset, only two were left standing.
Lancaster-Lebanon League runner-up Penn Manor and Section 3 champ Lancaster Mennonite won first-round games Tuesday night.
But L-L League champ Conestoga Valley, league semifinalist Hempfield and upstart Lancaster Country Day were sent packing.In Triple-A, Penn Manor pummeled Abington Heights 5-1, but CV fell to North Penn 2-1 and Hempfield dropped a 2-1 decision to Council Rock South.
And in Double-A, Mennonite eked out a 1-0 win over Northwestern Lehigh, but Country Day dropped a 1-0 overtime decision to Bishop Hoban.
The quarterfinals are set for Friday, and up next for Penn Manor is a match against Council Rock South, while Mennonite will square off against District 2 champ Dallas, which topped District 3 sixth-place finisher Wyomissing 4-1 on Tuesday.
In Tuesday’s Triple-A games:
Penn Manor 5, Abington Heights 1
In Scranton, locked in a scoreless tie at the half, the Comets erupted for five goals in the first 19 minutes of the second half and breezed past Abington Heights, the District 2 champ.Penn Manor, which got goals from Kristen Armstrong, Emily Gordon, Sara Scheid, Krista Witmer and Jordan Brill, had 15 of its 23 shots on goal after the break, and held Abington Heights to just three shots and no corners.
North Penn 2, Conestoga Valley 1
In Lansdale, the District 1 runners-up sent the Buckskins home for good, but it was an unforgettable season for CV, which won the Section 1 title – in its first season in Section 1 – and captured its first ever league championship before finishing fifth in District 3.
North Penn will take on Chambersburg, a 3-0 winner over Pleasant Valley, in the quarters.
Council Rock South 2, Hempfield 1
In Doylestown, Whitney Weinraub scored a pair of goals – including a tally in the very first minute of the match – and Council Rock South, the District 1 champ, held off the Black Knights, who will not make a return trip to the PIAA finals after finishing second in the state last spring.
Casey Fry scored in the 70th minute off an assist from Kristin Eck for Hempfield’s lone goal.
And in Double-A:
Lancaster Mennonite 1, Northwestern Lehigh 0
At Emmaus High School, Megan Yoder scored in the 43rd minute off a feed from Julie Collins, and Abbey Diffenbach stopped four shots for the Blazers, who knocked off the District 11 runners-up.
Mennonite, the L-L League Section 3 champ and District 3 semifinalist, outshot NL 18-5.
Bishop Hoban 1, Lancaster Country Day 0 (OT)
Also at Emmaus, Hoban needed overtime, but eliminated Country Day, which opened the season 20-0 before falling to eventual champ Fleetwood in the District 3 Double-A semifinals.
