West Perry really wanted a win against Northern York.
The Mustangs lost the first game 1-0 to its Mid-Penn Conference Colonial Division foe earlier in the 2022 season. But Tuesday, Oct. 4, the Polar Bears lost in the second meeting falling 3-0 on its home turf.
Not even the damp, misty weather could affect West Perry’s positive outlook.
“The weather helped us,” said sophomore Jordan Byers. “We were all bonding on how cold we were. I think that made the team dynamic awesome. We got warmer and then we had fun.”
Byers scored the first goal of the game in the first. She was fouled inside the circle while she was attempting to take a shot.
“I took the ball – it was a pretty ball – to the middle,” Byers said about the play leading up to the stroke. “Then I was fouled in the circle and that caused a stroke. I took the stroke and we scored.”
It was Byers second stroke of the 2022 season. She’s two for two.
She was followed up by Molly Zimmerman, who scored on a corner. The ball was inserted by Shay Dyer who got the ball to Autumn Albright. Albright passed to Zimmerman, who finished the play.
That was at the end of the first quarter. The second and third, neither team was able to score.
West Perry controlled game play in the first half using mostly aerial balls to gain ground.
“I think our aerial is always used to find the space, even if we don’t get the ball in the area,” Byers said. “At least we get the space. We have been working on aerials, like, forever. There are so many calls that can go against them, and we’ve been learning how to use it to our advantage.”
The Polar Bears picked up on the pattern in the second half. They applied pressure on the Mustangs, which didn’t allow them to cleanly execute lifts as often.
Northern owned much of the second half, after having brushed off its first half errors.
“I thought we did have possession a decent amount of the time,” said Northern Head Coach Amelia Martire. “I definitely don’t think it was a one-sided game. We just couldn’t put it in. And there were some good saves from their goalie and defenders.”
West Perry’s goalie Alexsa Frederick was under fire in the fourth. Northern owned the entire quarter until the final 93 seconds.
Frederick didn’t flinch. And her defense coalesced around breaking up the Polar Bears’ offensive surge. Northern had a breakaway down the field into its offensive circle, where the Mustangs were able to find a foot.
It was Byers again on a corner, off a pass from Zimmerman, who punched the ball into a wide-open lower left lane into the cage. Byers recently accomplished scoring 100 goals in her sophomore year.
“I saw the entire lane the entire game,” she said. “But I just couldn’t shoot there. It finally clicked.”
As per hitting over 100 goals, she said, “The points don’t necessarily matter to me. It’s everyone’s contribution. If I have a bunch of points when I’m a senior that doesn’t matter as much as the team is playing together and playing well together.”
The 2022 season is Coach Wendy Byers’ second as head coach. She said West Perry was unable to defeat Northern last year.
“We made a turn on being way more competitive than we have been in the past year,” she said. “Northern can get very fast breakaways. They are feisty and they are a good team. My girls worked together. They wanted it so badly. They stayed positive. And they do a great job of lifting each other up. I feel that they trust each other and their confidence is high, so there’s trust. If you make a mistake, you just keep going. You don’t stop, keep going.”
Mustangs: 3
- Goals – Byers (2), Albright (1)
- Assists – Zimmerman (2)
- Shots – 8
- Penalty Corners – 12
- Saves – Frederick (3)
Polar Bears: 0
- Goals – 0
- Assists – 0
- Shots – 6
- Penalty Corners – 9
- Saves – Gwenn Baubitiz (4)
