Cumberland Valley’s boys and girls found themselves in the same scenario for the first round of the PIAA District III playoffs that the Eagles nested in last season. Home field advantage in a double header. As it did last year, Cumberland Valley’s girls squad got the job done, winning 4-1 against Penn Manor thanks to solid defensive play and two goals from Kylie Robinson.
The goals were not few, nor far between to kick off the first half of play between the Eagles and Comets. Seven minutes and one second into the contest, the Eagles were off to the races with a corner coming from junior Serene Sherman which connected directly to Kylie Robinson for the opening score. Just over a minute later, with 31:23 still to play, La Salle commit Kameron Rase scored off another Eagles’ corner, this time with the ball bobbling around and Sienna Manns finally pitched it up to Rase for the goal.
It took just over nine minutes for the next score, but junior Cameron Noll scored on an unassisted goal to give CV the three goal lead. All three Cumberland Valley goals were within 11 minutes of each other, allowing for some early relief in the eyes of the Eagles fans.
The Eagles had another chance later in the half as Catherine Tiday put a shot on goal with ten and a half minutes to go that deflected off the post and back out into the pitch. The shot no good kept the score 4-0 at the halftime break. CV was on pace for their 8th shutout of the year due to great defensive back line headlined by Yale commit Alicia So, Sienna Manns, and Kate Collins.
Alicia So is a big piece for the Eagles defense. Committed to spend her next few years in New Haven, Connecticut as part of a D-1 program, So has been a lead contributing factor to the seven shutouts Cumberland Valley has put up in the 2023 season. In the first round of playoffs, the Eagles switched their defensive attack, moving So from center back to defensive midfield in an attempt to stop the Comets from shooting altogether.
And it worked. The Comets only got two shots off throughout the affair.
“Today we thought that we’d try to stop it sooner in the midfield, so I stepped up and took the defensive mid role. I think it has a lot to do with stopping the ball before it even gets to our back line, and making sure that when we get the ball in the middle, we facilitate outside and get the balls out wide.”, said So postgame.
A ball did slip past the CV defense in the second half, the final score of the game coming from Lillian Rineer on a solo shot. It was the only shot on goal Penn Manor had in the second half, and beyond that, the Comets didn’t have the ball in or around the box much besides that.
The match ended at about 6:45, 15 minutes before the start time of the corresponding game to determine the next roadblock in CV’s path to a District title. It’ll either be Mechanicsburg or Dallastown.
For Alicia So, the biggest focus is internal. “I think you should always focus on yourselves first. You just need to make sure that you’re in prime condition for the upcoming games. Whatever comes in the future, you should always know that there’s something out there, but it’s what we do now that actually makes us better in the games.”
Cumberland Valley faces the winner of #5 seed Mechanicsburg and #12 Dallastown on Saturday at Cumberland Valley.
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