Seniors rise to the occasion to blank Rockets

The Greencastle-Antrim High School girls' soccer team celebrated Senior Night in a big way Thursday on Kaley Field, sending James Buchanan home with a 5-0 defeat.

Seniors Grace Greenlee, Katie Gelsinger, Regan Hain, Ali Moats, Sage Kendle, Madyson Rohrer, and the captains Rachel Hain, Jane Herman and Alana Ebbitt were honored prior to the game.

Junior Ally Rudy said, “It's a great feeling to beat them (James Buchanan), especially because it's the seniors' last time playing JB.”

As the Devil seniors took the field at the beginning of the game, they immediately began communicating and passing well. Within eight minutes of the start, the seniors overflowed with three goals in three minutes. The first goal was a header from Moats, the second was a header from Rudy (surprisingly similar to her teammate's goal 26 seconds earlier). The third goal came about two minutes later when Herman kicked the ball right past the goalie into the corner, tacking on another point for the Devils.

Rudy explained how they were able to pull this off, “We all slowed the game down by playing the backs often, then when the time was right and one of the backs saw an opening, they sent the ball over the defenders to allow the forwards and outside mids to use their speed to get to the ball.”

For the rest of the half the ball stayed down in front of the goal, with the Devil offense strong and unforgiving. With 10 minutes left in the half, Jenay Faulkner had her first save of the night. The half ended with G-A leading 3-0, and would set the Devils up for a well-deserved win a short 40 minutes later.

The second half started off strong, once again. Nine minutes into the half Herman scored her second goal of the night with a kick that sent the ball right over the goalie's head. Twenty-five seconds later, after getting the ball back again, Herman shot another goal right past the keeper, securing her third goal of the night for the hat trick and the win for her team.

With 25 minutes left in the game, Coach Cole sent in Megan Swam as the goalie and brought Faulkner out onto the rest of the field. Swam had two saves the rest of the game, grabbing one from the ground and sliding to stop another to preserve the shutout.

G-A has a makeup game with Boiling Springs Monday evening.

Rudy sees the team “getting a nice place in districts and getting a home playoff game.”