WAYNESBORO – The Waynesboro Maidens varsity soccer team defeated Central Dauphin East 10-0 in Harrisburg earlier in the season.
Head coach Brian Fisher’s team did one better on Tuesday night at Buchanan Automotive Stadium against the visiting Panthers. Waynesboro (8-6) took an 8-0 halftime lead and then added three goals in the second half on its way to an 11-0 victory.
With three matches remaining in the regular season (at Mechanicsburg, vs. Palmyra and at Lower Dauphin), the Maidens have a lot to play for. Entering Tuesday’s contest, Waynesboro was ranked 17th among District 3-4A teams. The top 16 qualify for the district playoffs.
A five-match win streak to end the season would be ideal for Waynesboro. The Maidens have won two in a row after losing two straight (Hershey and Carlisle). Mechanicsburg is up next on Thursday, followed by Senior Night against Palmyra.
“We have to win out,” said Fisher. “If we win out, we’ll be okay. We’re playing well. We really played well against Lower Dauphin and played really well against Mechanicsburg (a 4-2 win). Mechanicsburg was 12-2 and we beat them.”
Waynesboro, coming off a 6-10-1 season in 2022, is winning games it lost last season. Fisher said the Maidens came up on the losing side of 12 one-goal contests.
“This year we’re winning some of them,” Fisher related.
Waynesboro has also won by large margins. It’s the second time this season the Maidens scored 11 goals. The other was an 11-1 win at Mifflin County on Sept. 5. The Maidens recorded a 7-1 win against Shippensburg in the season opener.
Waynesboro has also won some close ones. The Maidens beat Lower Dauphin and Palmyra by 3-2 scores.
Waynesboro played the ball to its feet well in space and in traffic. The Maidens really didn’t have to play defense in this one-sided match, and several high-percentage shots missed the mark.
True Benshoff opened the scoring just 48 seconds into the game. Nikki Davis, who recently scored her 100th career point, earned the assist.
“She’s the fifth person that’s done it,” said Fisher of Davis’s accomplishment. “She actually took over fourth place from tonight’s game. She’s just an incredibly hard-working person. She’s super competitive, everything you want in a player. She’s our playmaker. When we need to make a play, she’s the one who steps up and delivers.”
Davis registered her second assist of the game a little over six minutes later when she set up Lainey Peyton that gave Waynesboro a 2-0 lead.
Madelyn Logan scored in the 16th minute, and Peyton made it 4-0.
Davis tallied the next two Waynesboro goals. On both of them, the junior used some nice footwork to control the ball in the face of relatively minimal resistance. Benshoff notched her second goal to make it 7-0.
