D-11 SOCCER: Pine Grove girls fall to Moravian Academy in Class A final
Nov. 3—EMMAUS — Pine Grove had chances.
Great chances.
Some shots were right at the goalkeeper. Others ... just missed by a hair.
In the end the Cardinals couldn't get one shot to find the back of the net in a 1-0 loss to Moravian Academy in Wednesday's District 11 Class A girls' soccer championship at Emmaus High School.
"It wasn't our day ... it just wasn't our day," Pine Grove coach Andrew Haas said. "I wanted this for these girls. They worked so hard. Their climb this year was tremendous.
"We had big holes to fill. We had five freshmen. We got here, we were 17-3. I'm super proud of them. I know it wasn't what we wanted, but the kids did great. Their first time here, I can't be upset with what they did out there, but I know they gave everything."
Shooting for its first District 11 championship since winning the Class AA crown in 2016, the Cardinals (17-4-1) nearly scored five minutes into the game when McKenna Valentine's blast from the right wing was just tipped over the crossbar by Moravian keeper Addison Etter.
Pine Grove mustered three shots on goal in the opening 21 minutes and controlled the tempo and play for most of the first half.
Moravian Academy (13-5-1) flipped the script with a pair of rushes that produced corner kicks. The Lions then capitalized when a pass from Izzy Tran in the right corner toward the middle of the box was one-touched by Angel Deluhery and flicked past Pine Grove goalkeeper Taylor Ott for the only goal of the game at the 28:37 mark.
Deluhery, wearing No. 8, stood out for more than her orange shoes. She was everywhere on the field, both offensively and defensively.
"When I watched film, all I saw was No. 8, No. 8, No. 8. We were very aware of No. 8," Haas said. "I thought we did a pretty good job with her, containing her ... one push, that's all it takes. It just takes one. They finished it."
Still trailing 1-0 midway through the second half, Pine Grove went into full attack mode with four forwards up top. The switch produced several scoring chances, but Etter was equal to the challenge.
She stopped a long shot by Mia Jefferson with 24 minutes left, caught a rocket from Viktorya Luckenbach with 18:54 left and tipped a shot by Jefferson just wide of the net with 4:43 remaining. A final chance by Mia Love off a pass from Luckenbach with 1:49 left trickled just wide right.
"We came out in the second half and took it to them," Haas said. "At one point I had four up top, which probably got a little confusing for our players, but we were looking for the long ball and the extra push. We got the opportunities, we just missed. By inches, missed."
The silver lining for Pine Grove is that the Cardinals' season is not over. District 11 gets two state berths in Class A, and the Cardinals will face District 3 champion Camp Hill in the first round of the PIAA Tournament on Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.
"We're excited to continue our season," Haas said. "We come back to work (today) and we look forward to the next challenge and the next opportunity, which is states. We haven't been there in a while.
"It's a new season. We lost, but still we come back to work (today)."
Contact the writer: Lboyer@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6026; @pubsportsboss on Twitter
