Experience of Tigers shows in win against Lions
BERNVILLE — Southern Columbia showed that experience matters at this stage of the playoffs.
Playing in a chippy, contested game against Camp Hill that saw a number of scuffles, the Tigers never lost their cool in a 3-0 win over the Lions.
"We pretty much stressed that [the team stays cool despite some altercations]. We had played them earlier this season and knew a little bit about them," Southern coach Derek Stine said. "We told them 'just keep your head on your shoulders and everything went pretty good. We didn't get any cards."
Southern (16-6-1) faces South Williamsport in the state semifinals on Tuesday.
With the Tigers' speed clearly too much for the Lions, Camp Hill did everything it could to get to the ball. Oftentimes, that meant numerous players going to the turf, including in the corner near the Lions' goal when Southern's Sophie Shadle looked to get tackled by Camp Hill's Paige Owens. Both Owens and Lions coach Alex Panuccio — who was arguing the call — were given yellow cards.
Southern, meanwhile, remained in control — both mentally and physically in the contest.
"I think we knew what to expect but didn't want to be over-confident. We wanted to play our game and do what we knew we could do," Emma Genners said. "We knew they were going to try and get in our heads because that's what a lot of teams do. We were determined to keep our heads down because we knew that we could beat them with our skills and our mentality."
Genners, seen around the ball all game long, paced the dominant defensive effort. Her leadership helped the Tigers keep the Lions in check with two shots on goal and three corner kicks.
"They did a great job today. Emma Genners controls things back there and she's amazing for us. Overall, they had a great game, but Emma takes charge of that," Stine said. "She's been our rock for a couple years now. She's very vocal back there. She tells people where to be and does her job very well."
With the defense doing its job, the offense struck for fast goals in each half -- both via Loren Gehret.
In the first five minutes of the game alone, the Tigers matched the Lions in overall corners. They struck first when Gehret took a rebound shot off the crossbar and made the second chance matter.
She and mother nature then teamed up. On an in-play kick, Gehret got a rocket of a kickoff 20 yards into the wind. A good, late bend got the ball past the Lions goalie Sophie Ceo.
"In the second half, we had the wind with us and the ball just carried," Gehret said. On the sideline, because the ball was carrying, they just told me 'hit it, just get it in the frame, someone will run through it or it'll go in,' and that's what happened."
Gehret attributes moving into midfield in the second half to allowing Southern to open up its offensive attack more, saying "it allowed them to take their eyes off me a little bit."
That helped with the final goal as Gehret fed the ball to Sophie Shadle who got it past a diving Ceo to the right.
For the game, the Tigers had eight shots on goal and nine corner kicks.
It now sets up a rematch against district champion South Williamsport. The two teams met in the district final where the Tigers let up a two-goal lead and fell 3-2 in overtime. They also met in last year's state semifinals.
"We are really excited because we knew somehow it was going to line up," Gehret said. "I think we'll have a little more fire in us. They had a big reason to want to destroy us in that game and got the better of us then. We just have to go in with confidence and play together as a team."
Link to story: https://www.pressenterpriseonl...
