Yanc's two goals lead Blue Devils past Knights

Oct. 12—SAEGERTOWN — The Cambridge Springs girls soccer team earned a hard-fought Region 3 win by a score of 2-1 over Eisenhower on Tuesday. The Blue Devils earned both of their goals from Makenzie Yanc in the second half.

With the win, the Blue Devils have split the season series against the Knights after losing the first matchup on Sept. 15.

"This win feels very good," said Cambridge Springs head coach Geoff Bristow. "It's always a battle when we play Eisenhower. The two teams are very even. You can tell most of the game was played in the middle of the field. We lost to them earlier in the season, so we knew that we needed some revenge back here at our home field."

Tuesday's game was a tale of two halves for the Lady Blue Devils. In the first half, both teams registered five shots on goal, but only one found the back of the net. Twenty two minutes into the game, Cassie Smelko fired a long-range shot past Blue Devils goalie Elora Dillinger to give the Knights a 1-0 lead.

The Lady Blue Devils wasted no time getting on the board in the second half. A minute into the half, Yanc was racing down the opposite goal when a defender fouled her as she was about to fire a shot. As a result, Yanc was awarded a penalty kick. It seemed as if Knights goalie Tracey Jakubczak made the save to the left, but the ball went off her hands and slipped into the net to tie the game at 1.

"Not gonna lie, my heart was kind of pounding," Yanc said. "I thought she was gonna get it, but when it slid by her, I was like thank goodness."

Nine minutes later, Yanc provided for her team again. Yanc was able to get free and juked Jakubczak for her second goal of the match to seal the win for the Lady Blue Devils.

"In the moment, I was like 'I gotta get this in, I gotta get it in' and then when it went in, I was just so relieved and just happy," Yanc said.

"She's a senior who has worked hard for four years," Bristow said about Yanc. "She's such an outstanding competitor. She got knocked out of the last game with an injury and couldn't finish it out, so this time she was determined to come here and win this game. She just fought hard and sacrificed herself to get herself in the position to score those goals."

In the second half, Cambridge went from using two strikers to adding one more for a total of three, which made it easier for it to have more opportunities at the net. During the final 40 minutes, the Lady Blue Devils registered 11 shots on goal, compared to just one for the Lady Knights.

"We adjusted at halftime," Bristow said. "They play a very good offsides trap with a very high flat backline and we were able to beat that, just made the adjustment at halftime to be able to get through balls between those defenders in behind them and that's what resulted in the two goals."

Dillinger earned the win at the net for the Lady Blue Devils and saved five out of six shots. The only one that went past her was the long shot by Smelko.

Besides giving up the one goal, Bristow thought Dillinger and the defense backing her up played well.

"Elora did great," Bristow said. "The one ball that went in just had an arch that she just couldn't get to, but other than that, she handled herself well, did not make any mental errors and was able to keep the ball in play for us, sending out some nice punts to give us a chance to score."

After Tuesday's win, the Lady Blue Devils improve to 6-5-1 overall with a 4-4 record in region play with four games remaining. They will go on the road to take on Iroquois in another region matchup on Thursday at 6 p.m.

Alex McGinley can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by e-mail at alexm@meadvilletribune.com.