WAYNESBORO, Pa. – The Waynesboro Maidens and Cedar Cliff Colts had to battle each other and the searing heat and humidity Tuesday evening at the Charles A. “Rip” Engle Sports Complex.
The teams played a scoreless game until the 8:48 mark of the second half when Cedar Cliff’s Ava Caron snuck a sharp-angle hard shot past Waynesboro goalkeeper Abby Byers.
It turned out to be the only goal of the contest, and Byers – who traveled an hour to Dillsburg to play a round of 18 with the Waynesboro varsity golf team earlier in the day and then traveled an hour back to Waynesboro with barely enough time to warm up for the game – ended up making the game a lot closer than it could have been. She stopped 14 shots and was oh so close to stopping Caron’s boot as well.
Caron had positioned herself near the crease at an angle that made it a challenge to have a chance to make it into the net. Byers was well-positioned herself, but somehow the ball got past her outstretched arms and into the goal on the far side.
“What an epic performance,” said Waynesboro coach Brian Fisher. “She got here like 6:30 at game time. She stayed positive. She had a smile on her face. She drove an hour each way. I don’t know how she does it. We weren’t even sure she would be able to start. She warmed up a little bit. She was confident. Her punts were massive. She made some phenomenal saves. Coming off those corner kicks and not letting those second chances happen, she played an outstanding game.”
From the outset, the Colts dominated in time of possession in the offensive end. They managed to get past the Maidens midfield, but Waynesboro tightened things up inside the 20-yard line, making it that Byers didn’t have to make even more saves.
Once Waynesboro made it past the 50-yard line things got a little more difficult, as the Maidens couldn’t get momentum to get farther in than the 30-yard line before the ball went out of bounds or Cedar Cliff intercepted entry passes or cross passes.
Fisher anticipated the struggle.
“We started with like six people who never played varsity before,” Fisher said. “We asked them to give max effort; we asked them to be organized. We asked them to be compact defensively and just to stay together and stay positive, because we know we don’t have the most talented team this year. They put out work ethic. The goalkeeping was fantastic, I thought there was a lot of good communication. I thought the defense was connected well and stepping hard and covering well. I thought it was just a really good team effort. We talked about it being a process, building blocks. Can we get better today? Can we get better tomorrow? I was proud of their effort.”
Freshman Hannah Koons used her speed on the outside to chase down Cedar Cliff forwards to keep them from running free of interference and getting off potential scoring opportunities. She also displayed some nice footwork to dribble the ball deeper into Colts territory.
However, the scoring chances for the home team were few and far between for a team that is a work in progress.
Waynesboro plays at Red Land on Thursday.
Photos by Toya McCleary:
