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A-C falls 3-0 to Boiling Springs in district playoffs


BOILING SPRINGS – In the opening 10 minutes of its first round District 3 Class 2A boys soccer game, Annville-Cleona was generating some offense and looking ready to compete with Boiling Springs.

But after two early corner kicks failed to produce any shots, the momentum of the game quickly shifted to the host Bubblers, who posted a 3-0 victory.

The Dutchmen (11-8) had the ball in the Bubblers' defensive 30 for much of the opening 10 minutes. This resulted in the two corners, but the first went through the box untouched, and the second was cleared out by the defense. For the rest of the game, A-C's offense was unable to stay up the field for any length of time. In the last 70 minutes, the Dutchmen had two corners and one shot on goal.

Not helping matters for the visitors was that they were a little banged up coming into the game, and became more so during the contest.

“(Scoring early) would definitely have been a difference, but that wasn't our biggest problem,” A-C coach Ray Kreiser said. “They got everyone healthy. We were healthy, then got hit with the injury bug. By the end of the game, we were down four starters.”

Boiling Springs (10-6-2), which will play at Biglerville in Saturday's quarterfinals, started applying consistent pressure on the Dutchmen net in the last 20 minutes of the first half, finally breaking through with 2:21 remaining. Jacob Landwehr headed in a pass from Ryan Fisher for a 1-0 lead.

“The first goal we mis-marked, but the second two were great plays by them,” Kreiser said.

The Bubblers put the game away in the first 10 minutes of the second half with two more goals. At 4:41 into the period, Jovany Santoyo got a touch on a throw-in from the left by Sam Niles to put them up 2-0. Less than five minutes later, Landwehr scored his second goal with an assist from the left by Slater Ward-Diorio for a 3-0 lead.

Boiling Springs finished with eight corners and six shots and Bubbler keeper Drew Fink made one save. Koy Alwine made three saves in goal for the Dutchmen.

Even after the season-ending loss, Kreiser said that he thought A-C had a successful 2016 season.

“The season overall we were happy about,” Kreiser said. “We were picked at the bottom of the league because of what we lost from last year. We had a lot of seniors this year, but not with much experience. The boys played well all season. Tonight, we played a better team.”

The Dutchmen finished third in Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 3, behind Elco and Lancaster Mennonite. Both of those teams received byes into the Class 2A quarterfinals.