Lewisburg avenges loss, tops Selinsgrove
Oct. 5—LEWISBURG — Maddy Moyers smiled at the thought of Selinsgrove committing extra manpower in an attempt to contain her Thursday.
The sophomore forward was a terror on the right side of Lewisburg's attack, consistently carrying the ball over distance and beating an increasing number of defenders to create chaos around the circle.
One of her high-energy runs in the third quarter resulted in a hard cross to — and finish by — Erica Rawson for the difference in the Green Dragons' 1-0 victory in the Heartland Athletic Conference-Division I showdown.
Lewisburg avenged Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Seals and forged a tie in the loss column with their division rivals, which could leave them HAC-I co-champions for the second consecutive season.
"It's definitely good for our mindset," Moyers said of the rebound. "We were just so determined to win that we came at them and brought our fire."
The Green Dragons (8-2 overall, 4-1 HAC-I) had to weather a series of five Selinsgrove penalty corners over the final 10 minutes right after losing defenders Paige Bartlett and Lauren Hetherington to injuries 39 seconds apart. Lewisburg freshman Maddy Satteson came on to help hold the fort, and the Seals' Ali Beddall and Lexy Freed unleashed near-misses late in the sequence.
"Obviously when two of your starters get injured and have to go out, you realize you have to step up even more," said Green Dragons senior defender Carley Wagner. "We realized we couldn't take it lightly. We had to step up our game and not let them score."
Wagner, at center back, and sophomore mid Tia Berge were key to a defensive plan that limited Selinsgrove (9-5, 5-1) to one shot on cage in each half despite its 10-7 advantage in corners.
"With the three practices we had (since Saturday's loss), we changed our formation and added an extra defender, taking one of our offensive players (Berge) away," said Lewisburg coach Tonya Berge. "I was kind of wary that we wouldn't have the same offensive push then, but it turned out that we needed the defense. It was risky, but it worked."
Seals coach Roz Erb considered a similar adjustment, but Lewisburg's lightning-quick transition in the first half, with all-state senior Avery Mast in the middle of the field and Moyers on the flank, gave her pause.
"Hindsight's twenty-twenty, but you see how much pressure you hold there (over the final 10 minutes) and you wonder, 'Do we put people up in offensive positions sooner to get some opportunities?'" Erb said. "I thought about that coming in, but I thought Abby Raymond and Alli Bucher played a wonderful game and it's hard to move them out of holding key spots.
"They just stop so much — coming across the field, not even straight at them — that's it hard to move them."
The Seals' ability to defend the middle of the field made Moyers' success that much more pronounced. Whether stick-handling through traffic or accelerating past defenders, she routinely pushed the ball into the attacking end.
"When she went in, there was a complete shift in the play, you could tell, with her getting the ball down the field and using her speed," said Tonya Berge. "That was key to getting a lot of opportunities in our circle."
In one instance early in the second half, Mast pulled the ball out of Selinsgrove's end and passed to Whitney Berge on the left for a carry across midfield. Berge sent the ball to Moyers in the middle, and she bolted right, past two Seals to the circle, earning Lewisburg's first corner since the 10:03 mark of the second period. Wagner returned a wayward insert to the circle where Ryan Brouse's shot sailed wide right of the cage.
"It's definitely different from being on the left because, since I'm going against their non-dominant side, I can just use my speed and run around them," said Moyers, who earned all-division recognition as a freshman at left forward. "I just stick to it because know (success) will come. Eventually, they're going to be worn out, and I use that to my advantage because I keep just pushing and pushing at them."
On the Green Dragons' next touch, Moyers again dribbled to space on the right side and crossed the ball to Rawson in front. The junior ripped the ball into the open left corner for her 12th goal of the season and seventh in a five-game, goal-scoring streak.
"I think that is a typical grass style," said Erb. "Thinking back to the years of grass at our place, that's what we taught kids to do: Carry right, get the ball to your right wing, crank it across, and hope for a touch. That definitely leads to good play on this surface, and they did it well."
Freed, an all-state senior link, shadowed Moyers over the last quarter and a half. Early in the fourth quarter, Freed had a takeaway and sparked transition with Seals scoring leader Carly Aument. Wagner made a tackle near the top of the circle. The Seals played a corner soon after, and on a restart, Ali Beddall fed a long ball to Bucher in the circle for a challenge turned away by Lewisburg goalie Addy Shedleski.
The Green Dragons then stood strong against Selinsgrove's urgency in the final minutes, posting the first shutout of the Seals this season.
"We know that they have Carly in the middle, so my coach told me to just mark her up all the time, make sure she's not open, and take that away," Wagner said. "We also took away an offensive person and put them on defense, so I was able to push up more and stop the balls knowing there was another person back there."
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LEWISBURG 1, SELINSGROVE 0
Third quarter
L: Erica Rawson (Maddy Moyers), 8:18.
Shots: L 3-2. Corners: S 10-7. Cards: Selinsgrove, Lexy Freed (3rd, 6:35, green). Saves: Selinsgrove 2 (Bella Auman); Lewisburg 2 (Addy Shedleski).
JV score: Selinsgrove 3-0. Goals: Lexi Stoneburg (Lyv Herrold); Herrold (Kaydence Feese); Ella Heath (Stoneburg).
