Blue Devil Dispatch
By JAI E. COURTER Echo Pilot

Senior Roxanne Dewalt covers the midfield for the Devils.

Soccer

The Greencastle-Antrim Blue Devils hosted rival James Buchanan on Tuesday night hoping to avenge a 1-0 loss earlier in the season. The game was delayed because of lightning, but the Devils kept the intensity up during the wait and came out hard, shutting out the Rockets 3- 0 on Senior Night thanks to two early goals from Evon Wiestling.

Goalkeeper Christian Hoover came out sliding just three minutes in on a through ball to prevent an early goal. The rest of the first half was dominated by the Devils. About three minutes later, Jai Courter touched a ball down to the endline and Josh Higman ran to it and slid it across the middle to Wiestling who found the back of the net.

The Devils continued to attack and found the net again about midway through the half. After taking the corner, Courter retrieved the ball and slid the ball back to Wiestling in the middle and he rocketed his second goal of the night. After the first two goals, the Devils held the ball in the backfield forcing the Rockets to pressure a little and come out of their defensive shell.

G-A's Jonathan Kirkpatrick marks a James Buchanan player.

G-A added its third goal less than four minutes into the second half. Higman's throw made its way over the defense and over the keeper right to Mac Frederick, who headed it in at the back post.

The defense held strong for the remainder of the half and contained the speed of the Buchanan strikers, going on to win 3-0. They outshot the Rockets 27-7 and had a 2-1 advantage in corners. Hoover made four saves in goal while Seth Sprague had one save.

In the junior varsity game, the Devils won 1-0.

The Devils traveled to Harrisburg on Thursday for a Mid- Penn Capital Division match. The Devils dominated to win 10-1.

After a slow start, G-A finally got on track and started to attack the goal. Wes Combs led the Devils recording the hat trick while Kyle Crider added four assists. Tyler Carver and Wiestling each had a goal and an assist while Jordan Springer, Frederick, Jesse Herman, Ridge Bingaman, and Alex Yoder each had one. Higman, Jake Dempsey, Nick Cordell, Seth Sprague, and Aaron Hovey all added assists for the Devils.

Kelsey Gearhart passes the ball to target for G-A.

G-A pounded 58 shots and eight corners. Hoover, Dempsey, and Sprague each had a save at keeper.

Bulletin: The Devil booters defeated Milton Hershey Monday evening to capture the Mid- Penn Conference Capital Division title. They will play at Central Dauphin in Harrisburg Thursday in the Mid-Penn Conference Tournament. District playoffs will begin next week.

Volleyball

Another Blue Devil team wrapped up a divisional title last week. G-A's unbeaten volleyball team claimed the laurels and will head to post season play later in the month.

Tache Smothers controls the ball for the middle school field hockey squad.

The final drive to the title came against rival James Buchanan. The Blue Devils held on after a slow start to sweep the Rockets Thursday night in a Mid-Penn Capital Division match on Senior Night in Greencastle. They won by scores of 25-21, 26-24 and 25-12. G-A put its perfect season and a 42 game winning streak in the division on the line in an attempt to clinch the division against rival JB.

Katie Lutz led the Blue Devils when they needed it most and recorded 10 kills and five blocks. Lutz made some nice kills for three of the the Devils' first four points. After finding themselves down 17-16, Julia Stein got the Devils going with back-to-back kills and Kortney Eshelman had a spike on the following play. The Devils went on to win 25-21 giving them a 1-0 edge.

In game two, the Devils found themselves trailing again for the first half of the game until it was 16-11. Rochelle Christman pounded a spike to start the Devils on a 5-1 rally to tighten up the gap. After trailing 23-21, G-A went on to win game two 26-24 after a Lutz point and a JB misfire to put them up 2-0.

Devin Schaeffer had a productive game against Susquenita.

The Devils finally got things going in game three. Lutz got things started with a kill and a block and the Devils took an early lead. G-A never looked back and went on to win by a score of 25-12 closing with a Lutz block.

Eshelman contributed with 30 assists. Kelsey Gearhart had eight kills and Stein added six of her own. Megan George had 11 digs and six aces.

In the jayvee match, the Devils won 2-1 by scores of 25-27, 26-24, and 15-11.Chelsea Stander had three kills and four digs and Jenny Fisher had three kills and three digs.

Earlier in the week the Devils dispatched Trinity in straight games of 25-11, 25-9 and 25-17. Lutz had six kills and Beth Berger five to dominate the net. they each added a pair of blocks. Eshleman recorded 20 assists and five aces.

The junior varsity Devils bagged its match with two games each at 25-23. Leading the charge was Wendy Wolf with a pair of aces and 12 digs. Danni Morgan and Emily Lutz each chipped in a pair of kills.

Field Hockey

Greencastle-Antrim traveled to Chambersburg Wednesday for a Mid-Penn crossover game against the Trojans. The Devils put up a good fight against the much bigger school, but fell 3-0.

The Devils found themselves in trouble early as the Trojans put their first goal in the cage in the first minute. The defense held strong for much of the first half until the Trojans struck again with five minutes to go in the half to give them a 2-0 halftime lead.

The Trojans scored their final goal at the 22:38 mark in the second half. The Devils held on and didn't allow any more goals in the game. They were outshot 24-2, but Tashsa Musselman made 11 saves in goal for the Devils.

In the junior varsity game, Halleigh Benner scored a first half goal but the Trojans struck on a late second half goal to tie the game 1-1.

Golf

Austin Dunhour was the lone G-A golfer to travel for the District 3 golf championships at Briarwood Golf Club Friday. Dunhour combined 39 and 45 to shoot 84, but it wasn't enough to make the cut of 79 to qualify for the final round on Saturday. Only eight area golfers qualified for the final round, five of them from Chambersburg.

Middle School

Football

After a scoreless first quarter, the Blue Devils turned it on to overcome Susquenita 50-12.

Devin Schaeffer started things off with a 14-yard touchdown run. A failed two-point conversion kept the score 6-0. Schaeffer hooked up with Jake Statler for a 53-yard pass for their next touchdown. Denton Ensminger was successful on the two-point conversion to give G-A a 14-0 lead.

Susquenita found the end zone in the second quarter. They broke loose for a 55 yard run to come within eight points. However, that was the closest they came as the Devils continued to find the end zone. Schaeffer ran another touchdown in from one yard before halftime. The two point conversion was run in by Gerardo Juarez to give the Devils a 22-6 halftime lead.

Stephen Herman started things for the Devils in the second half with a touchdown run from one yard. Kevin Castellar converted the two point conversion. Tyler Szaflarski found the end zone on a six-yard run to give the Devils a commanding lead after a PAT by Schaeffer.

Susquenita broke loose one more time for a 40 yard run to make at 36-12. Schaeffer hooked up with Dustin Kelbaugh this time for a 64-yard touchdown pass. Austin Scott sealed it in the fourth quarter with an eight yard touchdown run for G-A's final points to go one for a 50-12 victory.

Schaeffer ended with 102 rushing yards and threw for 201 yards on five completions. Szflarski racked up 59 yards on 11 carries while Scott chipped in five rushes for 36 yards. Denver Cordell compiled 37 yards on just two rushes. All runners combined for over 300 yards on the ground.

"If you take away the first quarter, it's tough to complain about our performance. Our kids are capable of being dominant when they play at their peak. We have to come out with more emotion and fire. I think you'll see that next week against East Penn," said coach Don Chlebowski.

Field Hockey

Greencastle jumped out to an early lead with two goals in the first five minutes as they defeated Waynesboro 5-0.

Jenna Lehman found the cage just three minutes into the half on a pass from Jenna Crunkleton. Lehman blasted a hard outshide shot just two minutes later to put the Devils up 2-0. With 16:36 left in the half, Rachel Kline had a powerful free hit into the circle as Sarah Gipe flicked a high shot over the goalie to give G-A a three goal advantage.

Brooke Strait found the back of the cage with 6:32 left in the half to give G-A a 4-0 halftime lead. Greencastle came into the second half and saw a different Waynesboro team. The Maidens picked things up on defense and held the Devils off for much of the second half. With just a few seconds left, Gipe sent a pass into the circle to Brooke Daley who dodged a defender and drove a shot into the cage to give G-A a 5-0 victory.

Emiley Maiorana only needed to make one save in goal. Coach Sharon Smith said, "The girls once again used their strong passing game and solid stick kills to keep control of the game."

The junior varsity team won 2-0 with goals from Ashton Rockwell and Katelyn Conner.

In a 2-2 stalemate with Faust Monday, Sarah Gipe started the scoring just over six minutes into the first half after receiving a long pass up the field from teammate, defender Danae Timmons. Chelsea Miller of Faust then retaliated with just over a minute left in the half to bring the score even.

The Blue Devils came out strong with Jenna Crunkleton scoring off a Brooke Strait assist just 36 seconds into the second half. Kristen Garmen added one of her own for Faust.

Greencastle goalie Emiley Maiorana helped preserve the tie with seven saves in the Blue Devil cage.

"The girls played well against this tough team," said Smith. "Defenders Ema Bobbitt, Rachel Kline, Danae Timmons, Katie Fisher, Tache' Smothers, Jenna Lehman and Brooke Kerstetter really kept their composure under the pressure of Faust's strong front line."

In the jayvee contest, defender Ashley Leggett made a key save with her stick to help preserve a 1-1 tie, while goalie Hailee Martin recording three saves of her own to keep the game scoreless. Martin not only made a key save when two Faust front line players got by the defense to get off a shot, but she also did so while fending off a bee that managed to get in her keeper glove and sting her.

"I was so proud of how hard the girls played tonight. They played with both their heads and their hearts," said coach Becky Monn.