PV girls wins a classic defensive contest over Bald Eagle Area

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: September 17, 2020

By Kenny Varner

SPRING MILLS – Defense took center stage Thursday night when the Bald Eagle Area girls soccer team traveled to go up against Mountain League foe Penns Valley.

In the end, the Rams hit a goal in the first and an Insurance goal in the second to remain undefeated.

Penns Valley led in shots on goal by a 9-4.

The Eagles led in the corner opportunities 4-3.

Bald Eagle freshman goalie Angelina Grieb collected seven saves while Kylie Auman secured four.

It was a very close contest from beginning to end.

Both defenses shut down the outside running lanes, slowing the pace to a more ball controlled offensive attack.

Bald Eagle especially cut down the speed game of Scotty Dinges as she could not get anything past the Eagles’ back-third of Autumn Tobias, Jordan Franks and Alaina Grant.

The three of them are sophomores and it was good to see them working together,” said Bald Eagle coach Jared Moore. “It’s been a journey and they have been getting better each game.”

But Penns Valley had a strong backline of its own defenders, Leah Beben, Katie Romig, and Bekah Gillespie all stood up and deflected every drive that went their way.

Penns Valley’ Katie Martell off an assist by Scotty Dinges scored the first goal of the game at 25:50.

Both teams dug in even further in the rest of the half as neither team was able to notch another goal.

As the intermission approached, the Lady Rams held a 1-0 advantage.

The closest shot opportunity came early in the second on a wide open shot by a Grace Wagner kick that sailed into the the bottom of the crossbar of the Penns Valley net. The ball bounced straight down and was cleared out by goalie Kylie Auman.

“We were having a little trouble finding the net,” said Moore. “Here tonight a couple of better touches here or there. I think playing 100 minutes two days ago without a real preseason. I think that put the lead in their legs. I thought they played well though considering the long game and the tough loss two days ago. They bounced back. A couple of better passes here or there and we would have been in buisness.”

From there, the Rams added one last goal as the time was winding down on the clock.

Cate Goodwin in a frenzy of action at the net was assisted by Maria Lovallo at the 63:46 mark.

“Every time we see Bald Eagle it’s a tough, close game and tonight was the same. I was very proud of the effort our girls put in tonight and three of our defenders, Leah Beben, Katie Romig, and Bekah Gillespie, were phenomenal and deserve a ton of credit for their performances tonight,” said Penns Valley Coach Andrew Beverly. “I thought the first 10-15 minutes of the game were a bit of a whirlwind but we started to settle into the game well and focused on our game plan. Katie Martell popped up with another goal off some great work from Scotty Dinges. We were able to add the second off a Maria Lovallo free kick and Cate Goodwin finished it off after a well-timed run. We’ve had two tough games to start the league season and the girls were able to get results from each one to give us some momentum as we continue through the league schedule. We’ll just need to use the next few days to rest and recover and then we’re back at it on Monday.”

In JV action, the two finished in a 0-0 stalemate.

Next Game for Bald Eagle will be at Bellefonte Saturday 9/19.

Penns Valley’s record is now 3-0 and 2-0 in the Mt. League. The Lady Rams next game is September 21 vs Philipsburg-Osceola.

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