The Solanco girls soccer team's historic season concluded a win away from reaching the once-unthinkable goal of advancing to the state tournament. Conrad Weiser nipped the Mules 1-0 in a District III third place game on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon at Tulpehocken High. "It's heartbreaking to just have it come to an end but we fought so hard and we made history as it is," freshman back Arianna Sieberlich said. Solanco (14-6-2) set a school record for wins and made its first-ever appearance in the district tournament where they earned two victories.
"I would've honestly never thought this," said Mules' senior midfielder Alana Yoder. "But it was awesome." Tears flowing down her cheek, Yoder explained the secret of Solanco's success. "I think we were all best friends this year and we all just wanted to win together," she said. "We weren't focused on ourselves." Yoder, and goalie Gabi Dolan, the team's two senior starters, led the way. "We keep talking about this season being unbelievable," coach Ken Yoder said. "In some ways, it is. In some ways, I knew that we had it in us, even as early as last year and other years you could kind of see it building. Some of the freshmen that came up, just a few more numbers made for more competitive practices which was exactly what we needed to push us over the top. Then when you have special players like Alana Yoder and Gabi Dolan leading the team, good things are going to happen. If you could pick some pretty important positions on the field, you've got Gabi in goal and Alana finally got to play a central midfielder, general kind of role. She was doing things we needed her to do whether that was mark Number 10 (Conrad Weiser's Grace George) and take her out of the game or create dangerous chances all over the field. Those are big shoes to fill. Yeah, overall I was surprised but at the end of the day, not really because those two and the pieces that came up around them, the way we came together as a team this year was just really special. Freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, it didn't matter who you are, they were there for one purpose and that was to win games. That made it pretty special." The physical and psychological warfare between Alana Yoder and the Greyhounds' George was a major subplot in Saturday's game. Yoder eagerly took on the challenge of marking Conrad Wesier's most dangerous player. "Honestly, I love it because I just like getting in people's head," Alana Yoder said. "They always assume they get in my head but I just feed off of it. It's pretty fun." With Solanco sacrificing offense to focus on defense, Conrad Weiser dominated possession in the first half. The Mules managed to prevent any outstanding scoring opportunities. The Greyhounds' best chance came in the 17th minute when defender Hannah Wood blocked a shot after Dolan came out to the top of the box to challenge. "We were more defensive-minded and we weren't really thinking about offense," said Alana Yoder. "We just focused on not letting them score. So when we got a counter-attack we weren't really prepared to actually do something with it." The Mules were able to generate a little more offense in the second half before Conrad Weiser's Journee Haynes scored the game's only goal with 19:16 remaining in regulation. A cross from the right side passed through the box and Haynes was all alone. "I think we just wanted to pick up the pace and get a goal before they did but…," Alana Yoder said. " It was one of the few times all game Solanco left a player unmarked in the box and it came back to haunt them. "It felt like it opened up a little [in the second half] and I'm not sure if they changed anything," said Ken Yoder. "We didn't change anything, other than focusing and just a few things that we wanted to highlight and exploit. We could beat them in the back, we just put so many resources into neutralizing their high-powered attack. Their Number 10 (Grace George), coming in we knew she was a handful. I thought Alana Yoder just did an absolutely amazing job taking her out of the game. Fortunately, I don't have to see her name in the paper tomorrow. That was our goal. Unfortunately, we gave up the goal there. As a coach, you second guess decisions that you make, but at the end of the day, I was pleased with the girls in the second half. I feel like we were able to mount some attack. Then when we pulled the plug and pushed Alana up that last 10 minutes, it was game on and we had some chances. Momentum was shifting unfortunately we just kind of ran out of time." Solanco's best hope for an equalizer occurred with 10:53 left. Wood put a free kick into the box. Yoder was able to get a foot on the ball in traffic, but the shot rolled wide. The Mules' breakthrough season ended but not before establishing a new standard and setting significantly higher expectations. "It definitely changes the mentality," Alana Yoder said. "We're not just like, 'Oh, we're Solanco, we lose.' We can actually do it if we put our minds to it so that's pretty cool." She is confident the younger players will carry on the new tradition. "I think they're going to step it up and keep stepping it up," she said. Although Yoder and Dolan leave large cleats to fill, the Mules relied heavily on a host of underclassmen who came up big this season. "These girls, they've had a taste of what it takes to win and I think that's going to bode well for us in the future," said Ken Yoder. "Continuing to try to develop this team to where we're a force to be reckoned with every year and not just a flash in the pan type thing. It's encouraging and exciting as we look to build for next year." Comments are closed.
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