After picking up a pair of wins during the third week of April, Penn Manor's girls' lacrosse team was hoping that positive momentum would bode well down the stretch and result in a couple more victories. Since those two straight wins, the Comets suffered a two goal loss to Garden Spot and a 10 goal deficit to LCD/LCHS. But they kept at it. Saturday, April 27, the picked up their third win of the season, a 15-4 win over Palmyra but last week, came up short against CV 16-9, Central Dauphin 13-1 and Cocalico 25-3.
"Against Palmyra, we finally clicked as a team," said head coach Caroline Lovett, "and we led the entire game. We connected in the 8-meter, possessed the ball in our transition, and finished our shots."
Maeve Montgomery led the way with six goals, Anna May Barbusca added four and Keegan Dings netted two. Riley Robinson, Lily Sugra and Alayna Adams added one goal each. Evelyn Weaver recorded seven ground balls and CC Charles netted 12 saves to earn the win.
Two nights later, the Comets battled Conestoga Valley but couldn't pull away. They dropped a 16-9 result after cutting the lead to 8-5 at the half.
"They just kept chipping away at us and we were unable to answer," Lovett stated. "Anna May (Barbusca) had three goals and six ground balls. She was our biggest threat and CV did a good job of keeping her out of the play."
Montgomery (2), Sugra (2), Kim Miller and Malayna Kahl also found the back of the net and Charles recorded six saves.
"We had five and six different players score in these last two games, which is a positive," noted Lovett, "especially for next year since this year we are extremely young and inexperienced. Overall, we have had 15 different players score this season. I can't wait to see how we come back next year after another year of off-season work is behind us."
TENNIS
Penn Manor's Curtis Rabatin, playing in the L-L League Singles Flight Tournament, shook off his 6-1, 6-0 loss to eventual champ Dylan Tull of Cedar Crest and came back to finish fifth overall with last Monday's, April 29, win over Ephrata's Chase Wilson. The sophomore, who was recently voted as a L-L League all-star, won 6-2, 6-2. He got to the fifth place match by defeating Hempfield's Dillon Otto, 6-2, 6-4.
"Curtis had another good year!" said head coach Greg Hammond. "He definitely had more of a target on his back than he did last year. Almost no one knew him before his freshman campaign, but since was as successful as it was, all of the coaches knew what to expect had their player ready," he continued. "Plus he was feeling a different kind of pressure; expectation. That is tough to overcome. I thought for the most part, he handled it really well and played some of his best tennis in the LL League tournament. It is exciting to have a Penn Manor boys' tennis player qualify for districts!" he added. "This hasn't happened in quite a few years."
VOLLEYBALL
The Comets took care of business last Tuesday night and put up three solid wins, 25-11, 25-15, 25-17 over a one win Cedar Crest squad. Manor swept the series with the result and sits squarely in third place in the Section One standings behind Hempfield and Warwick.
"This was one, more strong step toward getting our chemistry back," said head coach Chris Telesco. "They are much improved over our last meeting, and they brought the ball back over enough to allow us to test our offense. Bryce Julian and Dylan Jacyszyn spread the ball well, giving Matt Schaefer 11 kills, Dylan Zimmerman 10 and Trent Schlemmer 7. And our former libero, Hunter Enck, picked up three kills.In place of Enck at the libero position was Dominic Roma.
"It was nice to get in rhythm a little more while mixing in other guys who haven't seen the court as much," the coach added. "We are hoping for a few more wins and to earn one of the last spots in districts."
Matt Schaefer turned in a solid all-around game, leading with 11 kills, four aces and matching Dylan Zimmerman, who put up two blocks, with six digs. Julian directed the offense with 24 assists.
Manor turned in another strong performance Thursday, sweeping McCaskey 25-17, 25-15, 25-21. Zimmerman dominted with 14 kills and two aces. Roma picked up 10 digs, Julian dished out 21 assists and Schlemmer put up three blocks.
TRACK
The track teams went up against two of the top teams in the league last Monday and despite a valiant effort, fell short in the upset of Warwick's Warriors. The boys' suffered an 85-64 loss to the 5-1 hosts while the winless girls' squad dropped a 105-45 result against the undefeated lady Warriors.
"We had some great performances against two very tough teams," said head coach Ben Shober. "The girls' throwers did not leave a single point on the table and the boys 4x400 team is still killing it! They posted the fastest time in the league again."
That 4x400 relay team includes David Kramer, Taz Whitfield, Josenlly Martinez and Chad Mowbray with a 3:28.7. Whitfield was coming off a winning 22.9 in the 200 while Martinez was tops in the open 400 with a 52.5. Kramer added a second in the 800 (2:03.3) and Mowbray (23.3) was third in the 200 behind Josh Gibson (23.3) who helped provide a sweep in the 200.
In the field, newcomer Kyle Murr recorded firsts in the long (19-8.75) and triple jumps (40-1.75) and Matt Julian won the pole vault, clearing 15-0.
Gibson, coming off a winning 184-2 at the Cy Fritz Open, claimed the javelin (170-6) and was third in the 100.
Jaylyn Clow anchored Manor's dominating throwing squads with firsts in the shot (31-11.25) and discus (114-9) and a second in the javelin (86-5). Marilyn Keernik picked up a win in the javelin (95-9) and was third in the discus with Hailey Magill's 87-9 second place toss completing the sweep.
Hannah Farabaugh's third in the javelin and Emily Sensenich (31-8.25) and Berklee Perry taking second and third, respectively, in the shot completed Manor's domination in the throws.
BASEBALL
Playing five games in five days is no easy task, especially when the bulk of your pitching staff is on the injured list. The Comets faced that challenge last week and struggled. Monday they were shut out by the top team in Section One, Hempfield. Tuesday they fought from behind against the second place Warriors and again fell short, this time 8-5. Wednesday was a bright spot in the week as the Comets swept the series against Cedar Crest, winning 11-2. That momentum, however, didn't get them past Dallastown on Thursday. The Wildcats prevailed 9-8 in eight innings.
"We've done a great job battling through adversity and injury this year and last week, despite, the two losses to start the week, I was not unhappy with our effort," stated head coach Streeter Stuart. "Hempfield is the top team in the district right now and the game was closer than the 5-0 score indicates. And against Warwick, we were down 8-0 but fought back to make it 8-5 and had the tying run at the plate. We never gave up and battled to the last pitch."
The Knights jumped in front with one run in the fourth and stretched the lead to 5-0 with a four run sixth frame. Ryan Glenn was Manor's only multi-hit batter, going 2-4. He also pitched the first 5.1 innings, striking out two and walking two. Brady Hinkle and Hunter Sipel pitched in relief.
Tuesday's contest in Lititz saw the Comets fight off an 8-0 deficit with three runs in the fifth and solo runs in the sixth and seventh, but it wasn't enough. Manor's three run rally came with two outs. Tim Hermansen singled in Dylan Frey who started the inning with a base hit, and Colin Adelman doubled in two more runs.
The Comets had seven different batters collect hits. On the hill, Josiah Snyder and Ryan Buchwalder pitched three innings each and combined for two strikeouts and five walks.
A 14-hit attack and a seven run fourth inning, aided by three errors, propelled the Comets over the Falcons Wednesday. Glenn was the catalyst at the plate, going 4-5 with 1 RBI. Frey, Sipel and Adelman added two hits each.
Sipel (3K, 5W) and Hinkle (3K) pitched the five-hit victory.
The Comets matched the Wildcats with nine hits each but Manor committed five errors to Dallastown's four. Despite holding a 6-1 lead after two innings, the Comets couldn't hold on for a win.
BOYS' LACROSSE
In non-league action Saturday, April 27, the boys' lacrosse team fell to 6-8 overall with a tightly contested 11-9 loss to Palmyra. The Comets fought from behind in this one. Down 6-3 at the half, Manor gained ground with a 5-3 third quarter but couldn't maintain the momentum. Palmyra nipped the Comets 2-1 in the fourth to steal the victory.
Clayton Hollinger scored twice and assisted twice to spark the attack. Josh Heckman (1a) and Alex Powders (1a) also scored two goals while Ian Young, Cole Spezialetti and Clayton Warfel each scored once.
In goal, Ian Young turned back twice as many shots as his counterpart, collecting 12 saves.
Thursday, May 2, the Comets scored four or more goals in each of the four quarters and came away with a convincing 19-6 win at Cedar Crest. Josh Heckman exploded for a season-high nine goals to almost single handedly pull off the win. Aydan Hinkle added a hat trick with Rory Campbell, Hollinger and Billy Briegel scoring two each and Powders adding one.
SOFTBALL
With the post-season upon us, the Comets had a big last week of the regular season. Needing a win over Hempfield on Monday, Manor took care of business, avenging their 11-7 first round loss with a convincing 12-5 victory.
Down 4-2 after four complete innings, Manor knotted the score on a two run triple from Paterson and scored eight runs over the next two innings while holding the hosts to one. After Sophia Rineer's one out single in the fifth, Tori Hook, Emily Riggs and Madie Trout smacked out three straight run scoring doubles to spark Manor's go ahead runs.
Riggs led Manor's 15-hit attack with a 5-5, 2 RBI effort at the plate. Rineer added three hits each, Hook and Trout recorded two hits and combined for 3 RBI's and Audrey Paterson pushed in two runs as well.
In the circle, Bella Peters struck out two and walked six in 5.1 innings of work and Riggs pitched 1.2 innings in relief, striking out one.
The Comets hosted section leader Warwick the following night but didn't have an answer for Katelyn Minney (7K, 1W) and suffered a 6-1 loss.
"We just can't beat Minney," said head coach Dave Stokes. "She's crafty and sneaky quick. She's a better pitcher than most think. And it didn't help that we had some errors (3) that they capitalized on."
Manor prevented the shutout with a solo run in the fifth inning. Green tripled and scored on Peter's base hit.
Wednesday night the Comets picked up a 'must win' 9-0 shutout over Cedar Crest, setting the stage for a one-game playoff with Manheim Township for the final spot in the L-L League playoffs.
"It's the last regular game of the season and the winner takes all," Stokes said. "It's a big game for the program."
The Comets, who dominated Crest 22-2 in their first meeting, needed seven innings this time around. A six inning third proved to be the fatal blow for the Falcons.
Peters tossed a no-hit, 10 strikeouts, three walks game while the defense behind her was flawless.
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