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Juniata claims third TVL title

Indians win on Josie Swartz goal

Sentinel photo by BRADLEY KREITZER East Juniata’s Emily Kline (7) tries to shield Juniata’s Josie Swartz (4) as she stretches for the ball Thursday evening during the TVL championship game at Upper Dauphin High School in Elizabethville.

ELIZABETHVILLE — Two cross-county rivals battled back and forth for more than 62 scoreless minutes without a goal Thursday.

Forget the rivalry. They were playing for a league championship.

It was an evenly played contest that came down to a penalty kick with 17:37 to go in the game.

Juniata’s Josie Swartz buried the PK past East Juniata goalie Erin Heimbach, and Juniata held on to win the Tri-Valley League girls soccer championship over rival East Juniata, 1-0.

It was the third straight league championship for coach Brian Strawser and his girls. It was also the first complete game he has seen them play this season.

“I’ve been preaching to them all year that we need to play a complete game, and tonight we finally did that,” he said. “We usually find a way to lose the big games, but not tonight. They played great for 80 minutes from front to back.”

East Juniata coach Lori Goodling was on the other end of the tough loss.

“This is a tough way to lose,” she said. “The girls played tough all game long. It’s frustrating.”

The chances were few and far between early on for both squads, who split their two meetings in the regular season. Neither team could control the midfield, making shots on goal hard to come by.

Juniata had its best opportunity in the early minutes when Swartz broke loose and put a shot on goal, but it was directly at Heimbach for the easy save.

Emily Kline provided the Tigers with their best chance of the first half, as she took the ball past an Indian defender in the left corner and found an open Madison McDonald in front of the net. McDonald’s shot sailed over goal, though, leaving the game scoreless.

“We knew this was going to be a close game. We each won one during the season, and East Juniata is a well-coached team with some talented players,” Strawser said.

The Tigers came out strong in the second half and had two of their best scoring chances in the first 10 minutes.

In the 33rd minute the ball was being kicked around in front of the Juniata goal, but before it could cross in for a goal, keeper Mahala Laub dove on it for the save. Less than a minute later Kline broke free past the Juniata defense and found herself one on one with Laub.

Her shot from about 10 yards out sailed wide right to keep the score all even.

Juniata put pressure on the East Juniata defense later in the half, which led to a hand ball in the box and eventual PK winner by Swartz. The Indians had better of play for the remainder of the half as the Juniata defense tightened up.

“We knew the team that scored the first goal had the advantage,” Strawser said. “Our defense also did a great job tonight. They don’t get noticed in the paper, but Ellie Shepps, Julie Swartz, Sarah Goshorn and Katie Lock did a tremendous job for us.”

Both teams move on to the playoffs in the coming weeks, Juniata in District 6 and the Tigers in District 4. Goodling said this won’t deter her team from pushing on.

“This was a disappointing loss, but we will bounce back,” she said. “We have a great group of girls, and we want to accomplish bigger things.”

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