The Garden Spot girls' soccer team showed a tremendous deal of character bouncing back to defeat Lancaster Catholic on Saturday, September 17. It was the team's first win of the season and came only two days following a tremendous effort against Lampeter-Strasburg at home.

The Pioneers scored two second-half goals to pull away and beat the Spartans 3-1 on Thursday at Lampeter-Strasburg. Clair Armbruster scored the equalizer for the Spartans in the 32nd minute of the match.

"It was a hard-fought game," Kyle Smith, the Spartans head coach, said. "We had many chances to put the ball in the back of the net and we came up short. We fought all the way to the end and I'm very proud of them."

The Spartans improved to 1-7 with their 2-0 shutout of Lancaster Catholic on Saturday.

"The Catholic game was our best game of the year," Smith said. "We were able to move the ball up the field with precision and accuracy."

Ashton Gonzalez scored four minutes into the game, doing so off an Alexandra Culbert assist.

"Scoring the goal in the first few minutes really propelled us forward and we didn't look back," Smith added. "Our defense was solid all game and made huge contributions to start up our attacks."

The Spartans went up 2-0 in the 53rd minute on a Crusaders own goal.

"Ashton scored the first goal and got her head on the second one and it bounced off one of them into the net," said Smith. "Overall, it was a well-played game by both teams, and we were very excited to get our first win."

After losing 3-0 to Lancaster-Lebanon League foe Manheim Central on Monday, September 19, the Spartans visited another league rival two days later.

Elizabethtown came back from a 1-0 deficit to claim a 2-1 victory.

Rebekah Witman gave Garden Spot the lead 21 minutes into the game. The Bears evened the score 11 minutes later on a Lily Heistand goal. Heistand scored eight minutes into the second half for the eventual margin of victory.

GOLF

The golf team competed at Mocassin Run Thursday, Sept. 15 and finished with a 382 team score, just five strokes away from Cocalico. Evan Humphreys (87) and Lila Albertson (96) carded Spot's lowest scores on the day.

FOOTBALL

Blake Weaver ran for 73 yards on seven carries for the Spartans' football team. His longest run of the night was 38 yards on Friday, September 16 at L-L League foe Daniel Boone.

That 38-yard rushing play put Weaver in the endzone and the Spartans ahead in the fourth quarter as they defeated the Blazers 19-10. The win raised the Spartans' mark to 3-1 (1-0 league). The Blazers fell to 1-3, 0-1.

After a 38-yard Nick Gleason field goal and a 71-yard Kye Harting touchdown pass to Zac Nagle put the Spartans up 10-0, the Blazers came back to even the score before halftime. There was no scoring in the third stanza.

Harting finished with 147 passing yards on nine completions. He also ran for 119 yards on 15 attempts for an average of 7.93 yards per carry.

Daniel Boone quarterback Dean Rotter completed 13-of-24 passes for 160 yards, including a 25-yard TD toss to Max Heffner. Of those 160 yards by Roter, 132 of them landed in Heffner's hands in eight receptions.

GIRLS' VOLLEYBALL

The Spartans blanked Lebanon 3-0 on Thursday, September 15 and split their next two matches, improving their mark to 5-3 on the year.

In the Lebanon match, they toppled the Cedars 25-10, 25-19 and 25-10 with Summer Stern serving three aces and compiling 14 digs.

Valerie Martin led the Spartans with six kills while Kayla Kauffman shelled out 25 assists. Ida Fisher registered three blocks.

On Monday, September 19, they suffered a 3-1 loss to Manheim Central, winning the third set 25-20 after having lost the second set by the same score. These close sets were sandwiched between 25-15 and 25-10 losses

Martin had a match-high 12 kills for Spot. She also served three aces and had 13 digs.

Fisher also had three aces. She and Avery Smith had two blocks each while Kauffman led the team with 22 assists.

In a 3-0 defeat of Cocalico on Tuesday, it was 25-14, 25-19 and 25-17 for the Spartans.

Stern's 14 digs and Kauffman's 18 assists led the team as did seven kills by Smith. Fisher served up five aces and Chloe Grady registered two blocks.

BOYS' SOCCER

It was feast or famine for the boys' soccer team which won a 4-0 contest over Manheim Central on Monday, September 19 - the feast. The famine came in the form of two 3-0 losses - the September 15 loss to Lampeter-Strasburg and a loss by the same margin at Elizabethtown on the 21st.

The up-and-down series of games put the Spartans at 5-4-1 (2-3-0 league).

Five different players got into the scoring against Central. Jace Weaver's goal came one minute into the game. Trey Dwyer scored off an Emir Hamzic assist in the 16th minute.

By the midway mark of the first half, the Spartans were up 3-0 thanks to Aiden Durante's goal. Rowan Sensening added another score in the second half.

TENNIS

The Spartans' 5-0 non-league loss to Manheim Township on September 21 was the girls' tennis team's fifth straight loss, dropping the team to 3-7 on the year.

The night before, Lampeter-Strasburg had posted a 7-0 Section Two win at New Holland.

The pairings of Maggie Martin and Meredith Horst at first doubles, Syanna Duval, and Lauren Pavelik at second doubles and Leah Moua with Ellie Culbert each played to an 8-2 final, coming up on the short end.

The three doubles teams each lost by an 8-1 margin in the Conestoga Valley away match on September 16. Horst came up short at number four singles 6-1, 6-2 while Moua lost by the same margins at number two singles.

CROSS COUNTRY

At the Ben Bloser Bulldog Invitational held at Big Spring High School on Saturday, September 17, Julia Hoover led the Garden Spot girls with a 67th-place finish with a time of 22:39.01. Haylee Hornung (27:34.78) and Ines Tedeschi (30:26.12) made the top-three for Garden Spot.

Alan Krock led the boys' team with a 77th-place finish at 18:25.74. Josiah Smucker (18:35.47) was 85th while freshman Justin McFalls posted a time of 19:27.57.