D-11 Soccer: Blue Mountain decks Southern Lehigh to sweep Class 3A titles
Blue Mountain's Evan Burcik (10) celebrates with his teammates after scoring the game's first goal in the Eagles' 3-0 victory over Southern Lehigh in Wednesday's District 11 Class 3A boys' soccer championship at Whitehall (Photo by Brook Koch-Guers).
WHITEHALL — Two games, two dominant defenses, two titles.
Wednesday night’s District 11 Class 3A soccer championships at Whitehall’s Zephyr Complex saw Blue Mountain take down Southern Lehigh in both games.
The girls ran away in the second half to a 5-1 win for their fourth District 11 title, while the boys struck early and used suffocating defense to shut out the Spartans 3-0 for the first title in program history.
YOUTUBE VIDEO INTERVIEWS: Check out post-game interviews with Blue Mountain players Hailey Scheuer, Lexi Waschko, Evan Burcik and Drew Waschko, girls’ coach Matt Kenitzer and boys’ coach Chris Brauer on the T102 Sports Now YouTube channel: youtube.com/@T102sportsnow
Hailey Scheuer got the night started on the right foot in Game 1 of the championship doubleheader, breaking free from the Southern Lehigh defense to put Blue Mountain up 1-0 at the 8:31 mark.
With an early lead, Blue Mountain (19-3) took control with its defense and transitioned into numerous scoring opportunities. The hard work paid off once again with just less than three minutes remaining in the first half when freshman Reegan Spangler fought for a loose ball and jammed it into the goal for a 2-0 lead.
The second half was more of the same with sophomore Lexi Waschko potting two tallies off centering feeds from Scheuer and senior Kelly Canfield less than 13 minutes apart.
“In practice, we were working on corners and crosses a lot,” Waschko said. “To see that it worked during the game was great. Our defense played an amazing game today, so I want to thank them for that.”
Sophomore Kyleigh Batory put up a fifth Eagles’ goal off an assist by Scheuer to cap off a dominant performance. Despite a late goal from Southern Lehigh’s Saige Smith to break the shutout, there was no shortage of celebrations from the Blue Mountain faithful and head coach Matt Kenitzer, who was very impressed with how his girls performed.
“I just love how they just play in and out with control all over the field, moving the ball all around,” Kenitzer said. “There’s constant movement, very strong in the defense, and then quality finishing all the way up through the top. It’s been just really fun to watch them play.”
Immediately following the girls’ victory, it became a question of whether or not the boys could write a similar story in Game 2. The answer to that question came just over 11 minutes in with two Eagles goals 3:09 apart.
First, it was junior Evan Burcik with a long-range shot that Spartan goalkeeper Ishmael Magallanes could only get a piece of before finding the twine. Then, junior Aidan Varney fought in tight to push the ball across the line for an early 2-0 Blue Mountain lead.
“Once we got those two goals early, it showed that we were meant to be in this game,” senior and team captain Drew Waschko said. “We were here for a reason. So that kind of fueled us to keep a clean sheet.”
From that point forward, the Eagles (19-3) clamped down on Southern Lehigh defensively with incredible execution. The Spartans (15-8) struggled to muster any offense during the contest and registered only three shots on goal, all of which were handled by Blue Mountain goaltender Caden Wargo.
“We train every practice on the Gegenpress and the primary defenders, whoever’s closest to the ball, and their job is to make the offensive player look down,” Blue Mountain head coach Chris Brauer said. “We did a fantastic job with that when they look down and can’t string to get the passes.”
If the final outcome wasn’t in question, Waschko put it to bed with a penalty kick goal with 6:52 left.
The long wait was over for Blue Mountain.
Finally, a District 11 title.
“My family has been in the program for so many years and to finally bring it home, it just means the world to me,” Burcik said. “Getting that first goal, it really set a tone for us. I feel like it just got us ready for the rest of the game.”
Added Brauer: “The boys and I have been talking about being historic the last couple weeks, putting together another Schuylkill League championship, and we had ideas and designs on winning the district championship. It just means everything that they played so well. I’m so proud of them. They just got it done tonight.”
Match Summaries
District 11 Class 3A Girls’ Soccer Championship
At Whitehall
So. Lehigh (15-7) 0 1 — 1
Blue Mtn. (19-3) 2 3 — 5
BM — Scheuer (Fishburn), 8:31
BM — Re. Spangler, 37:08
BM — Waschko (Scheuer), 40:58
BM — Waschko (Canfield), 53:36
BM — Batory (Scheuer), 67:22
SL — S. Smith (Bealer), 75:43
Shots on goal: Southern Lehigh 8, Blue Mountain 19
Corner kicks: Southern Lehigh 2, Blue Mountain 5
Saves: Southern Lehigh (Molly Pavis) 9, Blue Mountain (Karley Koch) 6
