BLUE DEVIL DISPATCH 10-13-10
CROSS COUNTRY
A superb effort in a dual meet last week led to a Mid-Penn Conference Colonial Division championship for the undefeated Greencastle-Antrim girls’ team (8-0, 6-0 MPC-Colonial). In a double dual meet in Waynesboro, the Blue Devils defeated both the Maidens (15-45) and Boiling Springs (25-30). Nikki Garns put out a solid performance to hold off a Boiling Springs runner to take the top spot in 18:42. The G-A pack of Mary Ward (20:05), Lauren Powers (20:13) and Caitlyn Hetrick (20:47) finished strong with fourth through sixth and Gretchen Westley (22:28) was ninth to complete the Devil scoring for the team win. All five Blue Devil harriers finished ahead of any Waynesboro runner.
Also competing for the Devils were: Melissa Holmes, 16th, 23:25; Desirae Shaffer, 22nd, 24:07; Hannah Lougheed, 25th, 24:26; Heidi Stein, 26th, 24:32; Kitana Reese, 29th, 26:30.
The team didn’t come down from the high of winning the division. Instead the girls ran to a team win in the Don Stoner Invitational Saturday in Smithsburg, besting 11 other squads. Garns won the small school race in 20:12, 25 seconds ahead of the runner-up. Joining Garns in the top 10 were Powers (third) and Ward (eighth). Hetrick was 25th and Holmes 39th. Shaffer, Lougheed and Reese also ran.
The G-A boys (5-3, 3-3 MPC-Colonial) came oh so close, but ended on the short end against Waynesboro (27-29) and Boiling Springs (26-31). All but one G-A runner finished in the top 20, but the numbers didn’t add up far enough. Brandon Thrush (17:17) and Daulton Monn (17:28) checked in at five and six. Gabe Martin was eighth in 17:52 and Brandon Garlitz 11th in 18:12. Zach Husband closed the Devil scoring with a 15th in 18:44. Also running were Michael Hohl (17th, 18:52), Cody Carbaugh (19th, 20:21) and Ben Hockman (26th, 21:40).
The Devils were fourth in the Stoner run. Thrush was 12th in 18:13 and Garlitz was 16th in 18:39. Other finishers were Martin (23rd), Hohl (37th), Husband (40th), Harbaugh and Hockman.
FIELD HOCKEY
The Blue Devil varsity field hockey squad (13-2-0, 9-0 MPC-Colonial) is putting the finishing touches on an undefeated divisional regular season, first downing Gettysburg 2-1 and then blanking Big Spring 1-0.
G-A used a pair of first half goals to hold off Gettysburg that managed a score in the second. Dustina Miller got the Devils on the board and Tache Smothers added to the lead just before the half on an assist by Sarah Jansen.
“I am proud of the game our girls played,” said G-A head coach Jenniffer Everetts. “They played a composed game against a very aggressive Gettysburg team. As we continue to work on finishing the ball, I am looking forward to postseason play.”
G-A dominated in shots on goal, 20-5, and in penalty corners, 11-4. Emiley Maiorana made four saves.
Danae Timmons recorded the lone goal in the Big Spring match on an assist from Sarah Gipe. The Devils had the edge in shots, 17-13, and in corners, 12-6. Maiorana was active in the cage with 10 saves.
In junior varsity action, the Blue Devils (11-2-2) fell 1-0 to Gettysburg before rebounding well against Big Spring with a 4-0 shutout. Moriah Woods scored twice. Hannah Mooers and Kaitlyn Burkett also banged the cage for the Devils. Kasey Sweitzer, Woods, Mooers and Kara Timmons each had assists.
VOLLEYBALL
The Blue Devil volleyball team (13-0, 10-0 MPC-Capital) may have found a slight reason to be disappointed last week, but with a team like G-A, a disappointment doesn't mean a loss. One set of a non-divisional match with Chambersburg was dropped by the Devils, however G-A fought back for a 3-1 match win. The match started off well, with a 25-7 victory, but quickly went sour to a 25-20 loss. Then, as if nothing had ever happened, the team won the next two sets at 25-14 and 25-18. Erin Garns handed out 26 assists and delivered four aces. This top performance was followed by players Lauren Verhoef with four kills, followed by three from Natasha Gibble.
Gettysburg was not about to trip up the Devils, who put the game loss behind them and dispatched the Warriors in three straight. The games stayed consistently close, with the first set ending at 25-17. The second was a bit closer at 25-20. G-A was quick to react and brought Gettysburg back down to 25-16 to win the set and match. Nakita Gearhart led the pack with a team high of nine kills, followed by Gibble with eight and Verhoef with seven.
The last game of the week kept the Devils unbeaten in dual matches at 12-0 with a straight games win over West Perry. The 3-0 win was conclusive with G-A winning by over nine points every set with scores of 25-13, 25-16 and 25-10.
Over the weekend the team traveled to New Kingstown for the Cumberland Valley Tournament and advanced to the Gold Division by virtue of its 5-1 record in pool play. G-A defeated CD East 25-10 and 25-17 and Reading 25-12 and 25-16 before splitting with Freedom 25-22 and 12-25. The Devils sailed through the afternoon round with a 6-0 mark with 2-0 wins over Butler (25-23, 25-17), Delone Catholic (25-23, 25-18) and Huntingdon (256-22, 25-22). That put G-A into the quarterfinals against Bishop Shanahan that took a 25-20 victory.
Kill leaders for the Devils were Nakita Gearhart (31), Sami Rudy (28), Natasha Gibble (25) and Chloe Hoover (19). Gearhart added 11 blocks. Erin Garns delivered 117 assists and recorded 11 acres. Alex Baughman chalked up 25 digs. Gibble and Rudy had 21 each and Jenny Fisher added 20.
The junior varsity Devils (9-3, 8-1 MPC-Capital) went 2-1 on the week. Non-divisional Chambersburg was the tough match that went 2-1 with scores of 25-17, 18-25 and 15-6. Miranda Sharp had eight digs, Gabriella Hissong three kills and Tiffany Briggs five assists. G-A then defeated Gettysburg (26-17, 25-9) and West Perry in straight games. Against Gettysburg Briggs recorded 20 assists. Amanda Hammer recorded seven kills and Dakotah Pine had six digs.
GOLF
The season came to an end for Greencastle-Antrim golf as all three players in the postseason didn’t qualify for further competition. On a poor weather day for golf, Ben Powers and Jared Grove took on the Links at Gettysburg with the rest of the Mid-Penn Conference boy linksters. The medalist carded a 77, the lone score under 80. Powers missed the cut to advance to districts with a 92. Grove checked in with a 104.
Blue Devil Ellie Kotrady had already advanced to the District 3 Championships at Briarwood Golf Club. Kotrady finished Saturday just off the cutoff pace with a 100. That was good for 19th place and just two strokes higher than the state qualifying mark.
SOCCER
G-A soccer team (5-10-1, 4-6 MPC-Capital) took on some tough competition last week and ended up with a 1-2 mark.
The first match of the week started out optimistic with a quick score by Corey Meyers. This was responded to with four unanswered goals to win the game for Gettysburg.
The Blue Devils had to turn around quickly for a rain makeup game with Waynesboro just a day later. Waynesboro jumped out quickly with a score in the first 15 minutes, followed by two more scores by the same player. The G-A team wasn’t able to score a goal for a 3-0 loss to Waynesboro.
Another rival was up next for the Devils who hosted James Buchanan and the home standing team had a tough start as the Rockets scored the only goal in the first half. The next goal was quick into the second half and made by G-A’s Noah Graham, assisted by Kyle Crider. The two teams would continue in a stalemate for the rest of regulation time. In overtime, Zack Faulkner scored the game winning goal assisted by Corey Meyers for a 2-1 G-A victory.
The junior varsity team (2-8-3) had a lot of the same luck, falling to Gettysburg (2-0) and to Waynesboro (1-0). JB proved formidable as well in a 1-0 loss.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Field hockey
The middle school varsity squad split its games last week, with a 1-0 setback to Boiling Springs and a 2-1 win over Carlisle. Haley Appleby and Whitney Singhas scored against Carlisle, connecting on two of G-A’s four shots on goal. Carlisle led in corners 4-3. Against Boiling, both teams had nine corners and the Devils again had four shots on goal. Jillian Barr had three saves in goal.
In junior varsity action, the Devils also split, dropping a game to 2-1 to Boiling and rebounding to score a 2-0 win over Carlisle. Annie Powers scored with a second left on the clock on a penalty corner with an assist from Emily Bland. G-A trailed in corners, 9-2. Powers and Bland had the goals against Carlisle.
Football
The Blue Devils scored a 28-16 win over Gettysburg. Matt Montedoro connected with Devin Statler on a 58 yard pass play for G-A’s opening score. With the defense holding strong, the offense again responded with a drive that Statler capitalized on with another 58 yard score, this time on a run. Gettysburg got on the board by returning the kickoff for a touchdown, but the Devils came back with a scoring drive, capped by an eight yard run by Ryan Ricci. Thomas Bowers hit all three extra points kicks for a 21-8 G-A lead at the half.
A clock-eating drive by Gettysburg ended when Justin Smalls intercepted a pass in the endzone. The Warriors eventually got the ball back and scored to cut the G-A lead to five. Statler cashed in with his third score of the day, a 65 yard run to ice the game.
Statler ran for 179 yards on 16 carries. Ashtin Byers and Ricci each recorded eight tackles and Nolan Carbaugh and Bowers each had five hits.
