MECHANICSBURG- Camp Hill’s defender Paige Owens played a huge role in a District Championship win on Wednesday night, limiting Harrisburg Christian to any breakaways, and she had three words to sum up the feeling after a 2-0 win. “It feels amazing.”
Camp Hill’s girls soccer program is coming off of 3 upsets in the District 3 bracket. First, they visited Fairfield, the tournament 4 seed, and Camp Hill won. Then, they visited Lancaster Mennonite on Saturday, the top seeded 1A team in District 3, and won once again. Finally, they played at Cumberland Valley’s Eagle View stadium for a chance at a District title against the 2 seeded Harrisburg Christian Knights, who came into the game on top of a 15-1 record, with a lone loss to Millersburg early in the year.
Camp Hill’s strong suit tonight was defense. It seemed like every fast breakaway for the Knights was stripped away by the midfield, led by Paige Owens, a senior captain on the squad. Owens made goalie Sophie Ceo’s job easy, as the last line of defense against Harrisburg Christian.
“It was just mainly trying to get the ball up to the other side of the field. We wanted to keep it down on our side of the field, we wanted to keep it down on our side as least as possible.”, the Senior Captain Paige Owens told Mid Penn Sports Weekly. “It feels amazing”, is what Owens had to say on the upsets, the District championship win, and what lies ahead, which is the PIAA 1A State Tournament.
Physicality is always present in the playoffs, especially with a trophy on the line, and this game was no exception. Freshman Sophia Shaw, who scored both goals for the Lions, agreed that there was a high level of physical play, before I even finished the question. Shaw said, “We knew going into this game that they were a very aggressive team, and we knew that we just had to push through and just work together as a team.”
Shaw is seeing the high stakes playoffs for the first time, as a freshmen she’s been put under immense pressure, as one of the team’s leading scorers, and now it will carry over to another level of playoffs. But tonight, she’s soaking it in.
“It feels amazing. We definitely knew that we could come this far if we work together as a team … we were very motivated.”
Camp Hill will go on to face Pine Grove, the runner up from District 11 after a 2-0 loss to Moravian Academy earlier today. As for Harrisburg Christian, they’ll face the winner of Southern Columbia and South Williamsport, which is the District 4 title game at Danville High School, tomorrow at 6 PM.
Comments