Girls soccer: Juniata sinks Millersburg, 5-0
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MIFFLINTOWN – After a busy week of action, the Juniata girls soccer team continued their winning ways as they went up against visiting Millersburg in a battle of Indians.
From the beginning of the contest to the end, Juniata dominated play, cutting the field in half for mostly all of contest en route to a 5-0 shutout.
Sylvia Brubaker led the offensive attack as she notched a hat trick and added an assist in the victory.
With the win, the upstart Juniata squad moved to one game from the .500 mark at 8-9.
"I think especially through the second half of the season, we’ve really been kind of on the uprise. We've been improving a lot more than we were in the first half of the season, so I think games like this really just show how hard the girls have been working," said Juniata coach Ellie Shepps. "We’ve been working on keeping possession, making sure we’re passing the ball, making good opportunities in front of the goal. And I think they did a really, really good job of that, as they’ve been improving through the second half of the season."
After a short sprint down field by the Millersville offense, Juniata proceeded to take possession and cut the field in half.
After numerous close shots and knocking on the door, Juniata worked the ball around and at the 10-minute mark found the opening they needed to get on the board.
Brubaker cashed in her first goal on an unassisted blast just above the reach of Millersburg's goalie.
The final nine minutes of the half produced two more goals before the halftime buzzer.
This time Brubaker found Carolyn Heidenreich with a pass. Heidenreich did not disappoint as she sent it through to the back of the net at 6:32.
Less than two minutes later, Olivia Mummah broke free in front of the goal and sent a laser kick to up the lead at 3-0 with only 5:03 left in the opening stanza.
"It’s great to see, you know, we have girls who are hungry to score, but it’s great to see that they also allow opportunities for the other girls to score, who are open, and creating those wide open opportunities," said Shepps. "I think for everybody it’s great. After the long week you’ve had a lot of games, it was nice to get some of the starters some rest and get some inexperience, kids back out on there.”
In the second, it would be more of the same for Juniata.
Heidenreich returned the earlier favor and picked up an assist to Brubaker with 22:54 left in the contest.
With on 16:14 left, Brubaker picked up the hat trick and gave her team an insurance goal.
Juniata led in shots on goals by a 27-7 margin and also led in corner opportunities 7-1.
“I think, every week this season, we’ve had three games minimum," said Shepps. "So it’s been nice for games like these to be able to give our starters a little bit of a rest. We had some girls helping ball run, which was nice. But definitely, it is important as we go into the postseason. We are making sure that we are still working on the things that we need to work on at practice and stuff like that but also being able to give them rest on their legs because they’ll need that rest as we go into the postseason here."
Juniata finishes its week with a 9:15 home game Saturday morning against Camp Hill.
Juniata 5, Millersburg 0
M 0 0 – 0
J 3 2 – 5
Scoring
J – Silvia Brubaker unassisted, 10:00.
J – Carolyn Heidenreich from Brubaker, 6:32.
J – Olivia Mummah unassisted, 5:03.
Second half
J – Brubaker from Heidenreich, 22:54.
J – Brubaker unassisted, 16:14.
Shots on goal: M – 7, J – 27.
Corners: M – 1, J – 7.
Saves: Makayla Haines (Mill)14, Yaa Serwaa (Jun) 3.