BLUE DEVIL DISPATCH 10-14-09
The Greencastle-Antrim athletic teams saw their share of highs and lows as the fall season turned a bit colder and toward its regular season conclusions.
GOLF
After one of its best seasons ever the Blue Devil golf team ended its season at the Mid-Penn Conference Tournament last week without putting a golfer through to district competition.
Six golfers competed for the Blue Devils and just one made it into a chance for a district berth. Nathan Pool carded an 84 at the Range End Golf Club for a seven-way tie for the final district spot. A playoff was held and Pool was edged out.
Also competing for G-A were: Dylan Emmett 86; Jared Grove 89; Corey Main 95; Andrew Zeger 99; and Ben Powers 102.
FIELD HOCKEY
Only an overtime loss broke a six-game undefeated streak for the Greencastle-Antrim field hockey team (7-6-2, 4-3-2 MPC-Capital) last week. Down by two goals against Susquenita, the Blue Devils roared back with second-half goals from Sarah Gipe and Shyanne Smith to send the game into overtime where the Blackhawks got the upper hand with a score.
“I am proud that they came back from a two goal deficit against a tough Susquenita team,” said G-A head coach Jen Everetts. “We knew it would be tough to play them on their field. Our team created many nice opportunities for us to score.”
G-A led in shots on goal, 20-15, while Susquenita had a 15-7 advantage in penalty corners. Kessley Carlson made 12 saves.
Neither team broke the goal line against Shippensburg, while G-A led in shots, 19-5, and corners, 12-2. Carlson made five saves. Everetts said, “The team moved the ball well today. Shippensburg moved to the ball aggressively and constantly pressured our players. As our shots on goal statistic shows, we had our chances to score. We are just struggling right now to finish the ball.”
The G-A junior varsity team posted a pair of wins, 3-2 over Susquenita and 6-1 over Shippensburg. Dustina Miller had two goals and Brooke Daley the other against Susquenita. Shyanne Smith, Ashton Rockwell and Brooke Strait had assists. In the Shippensburg game Rockwell, Strait and Smith had two goals each. Daley had two assists.
CROSS COUNTRY
The Greencastle-Antrim cross country teams traveled to Waynesboro to take on the host team and James Buchanan in a double dual meet. The Blue Devil girls came out on top of both competitors, while the boys captured a split.
Charmayne McFadden won the race in a time of 19:14 to lead the way for the Devils, who edged Waynesboro 26-30 and James Buchanan 27-30. She had a solid supporting cast as Kari Mellott was second (20:46) and Mary Ward third (20:50). Completing the winning team effort were Candace Johnson in 15th and Kaitlyn Conner in 17th.
The G-A boys got by Buchanan 27-28 and were tripped by Waynesboro 21-36. Brandon Thrush was the top Devil finisher with a fourth in 17:41. Daulton Monn was eighth in 18:03, Joe Pasquarello ninth in 18:09 and Michael Hohl 10th in 18:10. Completing the G-A contingent were: Justin Merideth, 16th; Zach Husband, 18th; Stephen Spinder, 24th; Logan Zuhrung, 30th.
The G-A teams competed in Saturday’s 20th annual Don Stoner Memorial Invitational in Smithsburg. McFadden was fifth in the large school girls’ race in a time of 20:16. Mellott was 37th and Connor also competed.
The Blue Devil boys ran in the small school division and claimed third place as team among a dozen others. Pasquarello and Monn came in seventh and eighth with times of 18:03 and 18:10. Thrush was right behind in 10th at 18:26. Hohl came in 32nd and Merideth was 38th. Husband finished 54th and Spinder 65th.
SOCCER
G-A soccer (8-6-1, 8-1-1 MPC-Capital) found two ways to win last week, a 1-0 squeaker by Boiling Springs and a 5-1 thumping of Harrisburg for important divisional matches.
The Blue Devils compiled 15 shots on goal against Boiling and made good on just one, but it was enough. Jesse Herman advanced the ball down the sideline and crossed to Taylor Kirkpatrick who put the ball into the net with 7:19 left in the first half. Defense was the name of the game in the second half, still keeper Steven Sprague needed just one save on the night.
G-A dominated in the opening half against Harrisburg for a 3-0 halftime score. Jake Dempsey ended up with the hat trick for the day. One was unassisted. Kirkpatrick and Jerrick Gembe helped on the other two. Kevin Piper and Alex Yoder completed the scoring with one goal each. G-A led in shots, 19-10, and in corner kicks, 5-4. Sprague recorded six saves.
In junior varsity action, G-A blanked Boiling Springs 5-0 with five different scorers: Cody Young, Zach Faulkner, Ryan Burgess, Abhisheck Purushotham and Luke Bitner. With assists were Faulkner, Josh Spoonhour and Noah Graham. G-A beat Harrisburg 2-0.
VOLLEYBALL
The Blue Devil volleyball team (9-0, 7-0 MPC-Capital) continued to sail along with a Mid-Penn Conference Capital Division win and a victory over a rival to boot last week.
G-A started the week with a trip to Waynesboro where it got on some good rolls and coasted in three straight games by scores of 25-9, 25-19 and 25-8. Nakita Gearhart led in the kill department with nine and added two blocks. Samantha Rudy contributed seven kills and also had a pair of blocks. Garns was in for 21 assists. Katy Bobbitt put in seven aces. Kelsey Gearhart added seven kills and five digs.
The Harrisburg date was even more lopsided with scores of 25-2, 25-9 and 25-3 with 28 aces in the books for the Blue Devils. Bobbitt collected eight to lead the way. Nakita Gearhart put down seven kills. Garns collected 10 assists and 25 service points.
The varsity squad spent its Saturday at the Cumberland Valley Tournament. The Blue Devils started on fire in the morning pool, going 6-0 with wins over York Suburban (25-18, 25-23), Plymouth Whitemarsh (27-26, 25-19) and Methacton (25-12, 27-26). G-A cooled a bit in the afternoon, splitting with each team: Chambersburg (25-18, 20-25); State College (25-21, 18-25) and Delone Catholic (25-19, 21-25).
Statistically for the tournament the leaders were: Kelsey Gearhart, 29 kills; Garns, 91 assists, 56 service points, 10 aces; Bobbitt, 46 digs; Rudy, 21 kills, 54 points, six aces.
For the junior varsity Devils, both Waynesboro (25-17, 25-6) and Harrisburg (25-5, 25-10) fell in two. At the net against Waynesboro, Caitlyn Hoover had five kills; Jenna Crunkleton nine assists; and Natalie Stein 11 service points and four aces. Against Harrisburg, Moygynn McKenzie tallied six of the 24 aces from the team. Tiffany Briggs had seven assists while Amanda Hammer had three kills.
JUNIOR VARSITY FOOTBALL
Greencastle-Antrim coasted 41-6 over Big Spring in junior varsity football action last week.
After opening its scoring with a 51-yard touchdown run from Denver Cordell, the Blue Devils scored late and often to go into the half with a 20-6 lead. Quarterback Grant Murray plunged in from a yard out for the score at the 2:39 mark. Murray connected with Zachary Keller for the conversion. The defense forced Big Spring to punt and Jason Koons blocked the kick then picked up the ball and returned it to the end zone for six with 1:20 left in the half. Ian Spencer intercepted a Big Spring pass and ran 15 yards with it. This set up a 12-yard TD pass from quarterback Justin Root to Denton Cordell with six seconds left in the first half.
It was all G-A in the second half. Spencer had a second pick and returned it 38 yards for the score. Aaron Bumbaugh handled the successful two-point conversion. Dylan Piper ran 47 yards for the score with 6:43 left in the game. Denton Cordell booted the extra point through the uprights.
The Devils finished the night with 237 yards total offense behind the starting offensive line of Nate Hykes, Seth Izer, Joshua Horenstein, Tyler Mills and Zachary Mowen. Denver Cordell rushed for 114 yards followed by Piper with 47 and Bumbaugh with 45. Denton Cordell caught passes for 23 yards while Koons had 8.
Greencastle's defense had a big night with 19 different players recording defensive stats. Spencer had seven tackles and two interceptions. Nicholas Potter and Frank Juarez had six tackles apiece. Hykes had five while Joshua Pluta had four. Denton Cordell and Bumbaugh each had a pick against Big Spring and Koons, Workman, Piper and Ladzinski all broke up Bulldog passes.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
FOOTBALL
G-A prevailed over Lower Dauphin 37-22. The Blue Devils nearly took a shutout into the lockerroom as Austin Scott ran for one touchdown and hit Daniel Stepler 51-yards for a passing TD, but Lower Dauphin put up points in the final minute through the air.
The Devils regained the momentum in the second half with Stepler scoring on the ground and the G-A defense taking control to keep the Falcons out of the endzone in the third quarter. Adam Moore capped the Blue Devil scoring with a four-yard run.
G-A compiled 210 rushing yards on the feet of Scott, Moore and Josh Young and was 7-of-11 through the air for 181 yards. Moore recorded eight tackles for the defense.
FIELD HOCKEY
The Greencastle-Antrim middle school teams played a set of games with Shippensburg last week and both ended in 1-1 stalemates. Scoring for the varsity was Kara Timmons. G-A led in penalty corners, 5-2, and Abbie Siner recorded two saves. The junior varsity got its score from Zoe Huston. Ship held a 5-3 lead in corners. Megan Witmer had a save.
