The Solanco cross country teams competed in the Maryland Track and Trail Invitational at Fair Hill Saturday.
The boys finished 10th in the Large Schools division. Liam Hodgson paced the Mules with a 13th place finished followed by Kyle Munro (23rd), Matt Curran (27th), Keith Carnrike (100th), Patrick Workman (114th), and Connor Neaves (126th). The Solanco girls soccer team dropped a pair of games last week.
Garden Spot downed the Mules 6-2 last Thursday. Solanco took a 1-0 lead when Molly Briggs buried a free kick from 22 yards out. The Solanco cross country teams opened the season with a home meet in heat and humidity Tuesday, September 2.
Both the Mules' boys and girls teams lost two out of the three meets against tough foes. In the boys competition, Solanco defeated Annville-Cleona 23-34 and lost to Ephrata 29-30 and to Hempfield 26-35. The Solanco tennis team suffered losses to Penn Manor and Cedar Crest last week.
Penn Manor defeated the Mules 6-1 last Thursday. Lela Fredricks, playing number four singles, notched the Solanco victory. She prevailed 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). It was the best of halves. It was the worst of halves.
Solanco's boys soccer game vs. visiting Elizabethtown last Thursday was a tale of two periods. The Mules led 1-0 at intermission before E-town erupted for five second-half goals on the way to a 5-1 triumph. The Solanco tennis team suffered three losses after opening the season with a victory. Pequea Valley downed the Mules 6-1 Friday. Nell Keeport recorded Solanco's lone win by prevailing at number three singles 4-6, 6-1, 10-5 (tiebreaker). "She played consistently, moved her player around the court, and got to every ball," coach Annie Hammel said. "She was determined to win and pulled through with a win for the team." Marissa Witmer, Caity Cozzone, and Emily Duvall each lost in straight sets. Witmer/Cozzone and Faith Reimold/Thea McCullough were competitive in their doubles matches. "We always have a close match with Pequea Valley and the match was much closer than the scores show," Hammel said. Pequea Valley tallied twice off corner kicks to defeat Solanco 2-0 in the girls soccer opener last Friday morning.
The host Mules controlled the ball for much of the game but were unable to score. Solanco coach Rob Bramble said he thought his team outplayed Pequea Valley for long stretches of the game. "I'm happy with the way the girls played," he said. "They passed the ball around well. Defensively we were fairly solid." The Solanco golf team is tied for second in the Section Two standings after three of the seven section tournaments.
Cocalico (16-2) is first followed by Manheim Central and the Mules (both 12-6), Elizabethtown and Lampeter-Strasburg (both 10-8), Garden Spot (3-15), and Lebanon (0-18). The next Section Two tournament is Wednesday, August 27 at Hawk Valley. The Solanco field hockey team is hoping to start working its way back toward section contention.
The Mules struggled at times last year but showed what they were capable of by defeating eventual section champion Ephrata. For at least the last 15 years, the terms "high expectations" and "Solanco boys soccer" have not been used in the same sentence with any regularity. In 2014, coach Ron Miller firmly believes he has a team worthy of lofty goals. Last year, Solanco earned its first section victory in five years and seven of its losses came by one goal. Buoyed by eight returning starters and an infusion of ultra-talented underclassmen, the deep Mules fully expect to turn that around. |
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