SLATINGTON — Pine Grove’s Adrianna Tennis isn’t known for scoring goals.
“I don’t normally score,” the sophomore midfielder said. “I am normally the one who assists goals.”
Tennis surprised herself by putting one in Monday. It turned out to be one of the biggest of the game.
Tennis scored off an assist by Mariah Lesh during 33rd minute, and assisted on a goal by Rachel Edge less then 5 minutes later as the top-seeded Cardinals blanked No. 5 Minersville 5-0 in a District 11 Class A girls’ soccer semifinal at Northern Lehigh’s Bulldog Stadium.
Edge added a second-half goal for Pine Grove (20-1), while Lesh had the game’s first goal and Steph Aungst the last, sending the Cardinals to the district championship game for the second consecutive year.
Pine Grove lost to Schuylkill Haven 4-0 in 2013. The Cardinals will face No. 6 Moravian
Academy (11-7) in this year’s championship game Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Northern Lehigh High School.
The Lions beat No. 2 Schuylkill Haven 8-4 in Monday’s other semifinal.
The Miners handed Pine Grove its only loss of the season, 2-1 on Sept. 8. Since then, the Cardinals have won 16 straight, including a 6-1 win over Schuylkill Haven in the Schuylkill League championship game Oct. 18.
“This game, we knew we wanted to win,” said Tennis, whose goal was just her second of the season. “We want to be district champions. We want to get further than what we did last year. When we lost that game, it was like a mindset that we knew we needed to start working. We aren’t going to just get handed a game. We had to show that we wanted to win and we came into this game with a different mindset than we did before.”
Monday’s victory was third straight commanding performance for Pine Grove during the postseason. The Cardinals have outscored their opponents 16-2 in three games, with Monday being their first shutout.
Lesh gave Pine Grove an early 1-0 lead during the 5th minute, but the game settled down after that.
The momentum started to shift when Tennis scored.
Lesh was working down low and then sent a crossing pass in front to Tennis, who was about 10 away from the net. Tennis then rolled her shot on the ground into the goal between Miners’ keeper Magdelynn Wigoda’s right and the post.
When Tennis shot, she didn’t think it was going in.
“I thought it was going wide of the goal and when I saw it go in, it was just an unbelievable feeling,” she said. “It is so joyful. And then seeing the team run into me and credit me for that.”
Tennis assisted on Edge’s first goal of the evening, passing to Edge who was down low to the right of Wigoda. Edge put the shot in from about 7 yards out to give the Cardinals a 3-0 halftime lead.
“I think it brought us back into the game because I know we didn’t have possession during the game and we were just kind of being lackadaisical,” Tennis said. “I feel like just a goal by anybody, not just me, if anybody would have had it it would have changed the pace of the game.”
Edge put in her second and 39th of the season on a counter attack after a Minersville corner kick was batted away by Cardinals’ keeper Jen Kaufman. The ball found its way to Edge, who dribbled up the field for about 75 yards with a a defender trailing close behind. With 30 yards left, Edge cut to the middle, worked around another defender and put the ball in the net.
Aungst finished the night off, scoring on a 25-yard direct kick during the 71st minute.
Pine Grove coach Jason Brown was much happier with the Cardinals’ possession during the second half. He knows that is what is going to have to happen if Pine Grove hopes to follow its first league title with its first district championship.
“After halftime, the importance in the second half wasn’t to score goals, it was to refocus on what we have to work on,” Brown said. “As long as we can hold defensively, we have to think of a mindset of Wednesday and that was our focus for the second half. We needed to bring our possession together.”
Game Summary
District 11 Class A Semifinal At Northern Lehigh High School
Minersville (12-5-3) 0 0 — 0 Pine Grove (20-1) 3 2 — 5
PG —Mar. Lesh (Edge), 4:37
PG —Tennis (Mar. Lesh), 32:35
PG —Edge (Tennis), 37:04
PG —Edge, 49:55
PG —Aungst, 70:22
Shots on goal: Minersville 1, Pine Grove 8. Corner kicks: Minersville 1, Pine Grove 2. Saves: Minersville (Wigoda) 3, Pine Grove (Kaufman) 1.