BUCKSKINS FALL TO LOWER DAUPHIN 1-0 IN GIRLS’ SOCCER FINAL FOUR

Dave Byrne was in Hersheypark Stadium on Tuesday night for the District 3 Triple-A girls’ soccer semifinal pitting Conestoga Valley against Lower Dauphin. LD edged the Buckskins 1-0. Here’s Dave’s story from Wednesday’s New Era:

HERSHEY — Falling behind early in a soccer game shouldn’t be fatal.

Usually isn’t fatal.

But Conestoga Valley’s dreams of playing for the District 3 Triple-A championship suffered what proved to be a mortal wound just 82 seconds into Tuesday night’s semifinal on the A-Turf in Hersheypark Stadium.

Lower Dauphin forward Lauren Alwine scored the only goal of the game before some of the Falcons’ faithful had taken their seats and LD made that stand for a 1-0 victory.

With the win, the Falcons (17-3-1) return to Hersheypark Stadium Friday night to meet Mid-Penn foe Central Dauphin, a 1-0 winner over reigning champ Wilson in the other semifinal.

CV (15-7-2) will await the outcome of the title match to learn its position in the pairings for next week’s PIAA Tournament.

Using “follow-the-leader” to determine seedings, if Lower Dauphin wins the title, CV will be the No. 3 seed from District 3. Should CD win, the Buckskins will be the fourth seed.

Tuesday night, CV could not reverse the damage done by Alwine’s strike.

Alwine, a member of the U.S. National Under-19 Team, briefly lost the ball in the Buckskins’ box, but the defense couldn’t clear it.

The ball came back to Alwine in the slot, and the University of Virginia recruit blasted a ball off the inside face of the right post for the game’s only goal.

CV coach Bob Scotten called it a lucky goal.

“She made a lot of moves to get there,” he said qualifying his opinion, “but it kind of rolled into the corner and hit the post.”

“It was kind of lucky,” Alwine admitted. “I just tried to hit it far post because the goalie was near (post).”

After that, the Falcons dominated the first half — on the pitch and the score sheet.

LD out-shot CV 7-1 in the half, with CV’s only shot a soft roller 30 seconds into the contest.

With the exception of a four-minute stretch, 10 minutes into the game, and the last three minutes of the half, the Bucks were back on their heels, pinned down by a Falcons’ midfield and defense that was well prepared.

“We knew how (CV) was going to play,” LD coach Randy Behney said. “They come at you. They’re not afraid to head ball here, flick a ball there. They bang the ball.”

Alwine banged a ball off the crossbar with 20:41 left in the half, on an otherwise beautiful shot, and Scotten took that as a sign.

“You’re thinking it’s your night, even though they scored early,” he said.

The Bucks took the pitch with renewed vigor for the second half and quickly established an offense, as Holland Beiler sent a ball over the crossbar and Meredith Hayden took a shot that was saved by Falcons’ freshman keeper Taylor Alwine, sister of Lauren Alwine.

Taylor Alwine also made a good save on Alexandria Kauffman in the 58th minute and a great save on Morgan Gerz in the 70th and the Bucks just ran out of clock.

“I figured we’d score,” Scotten said. “We did a lot of good stuff. And we had our chances, had some clear opportunities. We just didn’t finish them.”