Knight girls clinch tie for MVAL soccer title

October 06, 2000

Knight girls clinch tie for MVAL soccer title

By ADELINE STAEBLER / Staff Correspondent

WILLIAMSPORT - Middletown girls soccer coach John Miller said he thinks that his team's best defense is their offense.

The Knights proved Miller's theory Friday when they shut out Williamsport in a 4-0 Monocacy Valley Athletic League win.

With the win, Middletown (10-0, 7-0) clinches no worse than a tie for the conference title.

Middletown scored two goals in the first five minutes of the game to leap ahead. They then took control of the ball and kept control for the better part of the game.

"(Middletown) is able to control the ball on the ground and in the air. They're an exceptionally good volley team," Williamsport coach John Weimer said.

Three and a half minutes into the game Lainey Nichols had an unassisted goal. Moments later Megan Durant scored for the Knights. Trista Haupt had the assist.

"We knew it could be a tough match," Miller said. " (This match has) generally been a little more physical in the past. We knew to expect that (Williamsport) would get a quick counter on us and we were just trying to guard against that."

Haupt scored just minutes into the second half with an assist by Kim Waeber to put the Knights up, 3-0.

"Kim Waeber played (the ball) to me and I saw the one girl coming and then I saw the keeper coming out," Haupt said. "So I kind of just slid in between them and stuck my foot out and I collided with the keeper, but I was happy, it was a goal."

Haupt had another assist with about 23 minutes left in the game. She fed the ball to Sam Wilson, who scored to make the game, 4-0.

"I think our first big advantage was that we came out really hard and we set the tone," Haupt said. "We told them that we're not going to let down and that we're meaning business."

The Knights had 28 shots on Williamsport's goal. Williamsport (4-4-1, 0-3-1) had 10 shots.

"We're going with only three backs right now," Miller said. "We run three strikers up top and four midfielders, so with three backs, we're not running any kind of an offsides trap, but it allows us to work up their strikers and still have kind of a defender back. So I think that helped us collect some of those balls that we were expecting to come thoerugh in the counter and we were able to push that right back up."

Williamsport goalie Lindsay Dellinger had 10 saves. The Knights' goalkeeper, Anna Halse, had seven saves.

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