Biglerville's Pepe Chavez, left, and Fairfield's Josh Kern head the ball during Wednesday's District 3 Class A Tournament semifinal game at Manchester. (Evening Sun Photo by Meghan Gauriloff)
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In the ultimate rubber match, the Biglerville High Canners netted two second-half goals and went on to defeat the Fairfield High Knights 2-1 in a District 3 Class A boys soccer semifinal Wednesday at Northeastern High School, Manchester.

The Canners and Knights split their two regular season meetings and shared the YAIAA Division III crown this season.

The win puts the Canners into the district championship game for the first time since 2003. They will face Camp Hill, a 2-0 winner over Bible Baptist, at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Hersheypark Stadium.

Biglerville (14-8-1) hosted Camp Hill on Sept. 20 and they played to a scoreless tie.

"We tied them (Camp Hill) on our field earlier this year, but this one will be on a neutral field on turf," said Biglerville head coach Rob Moore. "The game being on turf is huge for them. They are a very technical team and it will benefit them. ... They are also loaded with seniors, all but one of their starters is a senior."

The Canners broke the scoreless tie Wednesday night when Pepe Chavez scored unassisted with 37:48 left in the game. Chavez's goal, his first of the season, came from 30 yards out on the right side. He lofted it over keeper Brandon Lowe and into the left side of the goal.

"It was supposed to be a cross, but I got lucky and it went in," said Chavez. "I've had chances to score this year, but I haven't been able to ... It felt really good to score in this game and beat a rival like Fairfield."

Nathan

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Long added to the Canner lead when he scored on a nifty header off a cross from Julio Padilla with 33:42 left to play. Padilla beat a pair of defenders and sent the cross that Long knocked in.

Fairfield (14-7) got on the board when Josh Kern scored off of an assist from Pat Herl with 25:21 left to play. Herl saw his chance to tie the game get snuffed out by Biglerville keeper Bryce Showers with 19:38 remaining.

"I thought it was an even match," said Fairfield head coach Clyde McClain.

Fairfield's Aaron Vanderboegh, left, and Biglerville's Alex Lua ight to gain control of the ball during Wednesday's District 3 Class A Tournament semifinal at Manchester. (Evening Sun Photo by Meghan Gauriloff)
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"After we fell behind, I thought we outplayed them in the last 30 minutes ... Unfortunately it took falling behind to get us going."

Both teams had chances in the first half, but came up empty. Biglerville's Alex Lua scored a goal with 36:04 left in the first half, but it was disallowed due him being offsides. Lua hit the cross bar with 28:15 left and Fairfield's Sam Kern shot over the goal with 23:58 remaining in the opening half.

Lowe stonewalled Matt Guise's shot with 15:57 to play until the break and did likewise to Tyler Shaffer's try with 5:49 to play until intermisson.

As the season went along, Moore wasn't sure that his Canners would get as far as they have.

"There were times that I thought we weren't going to get there," said Moore of reaching the district final. "We lost some games that we should've have, but the effort of the kids, especially defensively, has been the key to us turning the corner and getting where we are."