ORWIGSBURG — Mackenzie Lesh was eager to play again.
The last time the Pine Grove senior captain led the Cardinals onto the pitch, the result was a defeat in the Schuylkill League championship game.
Monday night’s District 11 Class A semifinal with Williams Valley was far from that heart-breaking defeat suffered more than a week ago.
Lesh scored twice as the Cardinals routed the Vikings 5-0 at Blue Mountain High School’s Eagles’ Nest to earn a shot at back-to-back District 11 Class A championships.
Pine Grove plays No. 2 Notre Dame-East Stroudsburg in Wednesday’s district final at 5 p.m. at Northern Lehigh High School. The Cardinals won their first district title last year by beating Moravian Academy 3-2 at Northern Lehigh.
“We were pretty confident tonight,” Lesh said. “We wanted to come out and play our game.”
That game was possession. And the Vikings were helpless to stop it.
Pine Grove (20-2) started peppering the Williams Valley goal shortly after the opening whistle. Mariah Lesh had one shot off the post and another blocked in the first 10 minutes.
Another block on a Mariah Lesh shot set up the Cardinals’ first goal in the 9th minute. Lesh angled a ball off a defender from the left side of the box that fell to the middle to an unmarked Steph Aungst for an easy goal and a 1-0 lead.
The assault continued consistently and resulted in Pine Grove’s second goal 5 minutes later when Caitlin Seiverling got a clear shot from a deflected Morgan Edge cross, putting it behind Vikings keeper Alyssa Schadle for a 2-0 advantage.
Williams Valley (14-7) had little possession in the first half. What possession the Vikings did get was quickly erased by Pine Grove’s back pressure, forcing Williams Valley to target forward Rayanne Hawk with little success.
Cardinals keeper Jen Kaufman timed her charges well and snuffed out any long balls the Vikings delivered. When she stayed back, sweeper Maddie Frew was there to clear away any danger.
“They’ve got such talent up front and in the midfield,” Williams Valley coach Gary Fetterhoff said. “You’re going against Edge and the two Leshes. They’re more talented than us right now.”
Pine Grove produced its third goal in the 25th minute after a sustained period of pressure. Williams Valley blocked a couple of shots and Schadle made a couple of saves before Mackenzie Lesh’s thunderous shot into the back of the net that most fans in the Eagles’ Nest heard before they saw it bulge the netting.
The Vikings’ halftime deficit could’ve been greater if not for Schadle, who made two saves from close range in the final three minutes. Schadle made 14 saves, seven in each half, and helped Williams Valley defend 12 corners.
“I think she’s one of the best goalies in the league the last couple years,” Fetterhoff said of Schadle. “She helped us in a lot of big games. She had a good game tonight, unfortunately some of their strikers got through our defense and that’s the way it is.”
Little changed in the second half, as Mariah Lesh again got two quality looks at goal in the opening six minutes — one from an Edge cross, the other off a turnover. Pine Grove coach Jason Brown was more pleased with his side’s second-half performance than the first, despite fewer Cardinal shots finding the back of the net.
“We struggled a little in the beginning of the first half,” Brown said. “I thought we were forcing it long a little up top. In the second half, we started to string together shorter passes. We created more genuine scoring opportunities in the second half.”
The first good chance was finished off by Adrianna Tennis. The junior midfielder extended Pine Grove’s lead in the 53rd minute, getting on the end of a beautifully angled ball from Seiverling to the right corner of the box. Tennis, with a defender inside of her, placed her shot across Schadle and into the side netting.
Williams Valley’s only quality chances came in the second half. The first stemmed from a long ball to Hawk in the 55th minute, but with defenders closing her down fast, her powerful shot went over the bar above Kaufman.
Then, in the 59th minute, Erica Wessner got a touch on a loose ball in the 6-yard box following a Williams Valley free kick, but the ball clipped the post and was cleared by the Pine Grove defense. Another Vikings’ free kick in the 61st minute — this time 60 yards from goal — was caught by Kaufman, the first shot on goal she faced.
Mackenzie Lesh scored her second of the night in the 75th minute on a soft feed from Coral Kreiser, who darted down the left touch line before cutting inside the box.
“What’s great about this team is that even though we had that loss (in the Schuylkill League championship), they took it in stride,” Brown said. “... You lose a game like that, you never know how it can affect the rest of your season. This group doesn’t let things like that affect them.”
Game Summary
District 11 Class A Girls’ Semifinals
At Blue Mountain High School
Wms. Valley (14-6) 0 0 — 0
Pine Grove (19-2) 3 2 — 5
PG — Aungst (unassisted), 8:49
PG — Seiverling (unassisted), 13:38
PG — Mac. Lesh (unassisted), 24:59
PG — Tennis (Seiverling), 52:18
PG — Mac. Lesh (Kreiser), 74:17
Shots on goal: Williams Valley 1, Pine Grove 19. Corner kicks: Williams Valley 0, Pine Grove 12. Saves: Williams Valley (A. Schadle) 14, Pine Grove (Kaufman) 1.