The Garden Spot girls' volleyball team wrapped up the 2022 regular season with back-to-back victories, including a 3-0 defeat of Section Two rival Cocalico on Thursday, October 13 on the road.

The Eagles battled the Spartans in both of the first two sets as Garden Spot outlasted the home team's resilience with a 27-25 opening set victory followed by a 25-20 win.

In the third set, the Spartans (8-8) won easily with a 25-11 margin.

Garden Spot finished with a 6-8 mark in the Lancaster-Lebanon League. They are currently ranked 15th in the District Three Class 3A power rankings. At the 3A level, the top 16 teams qualify for the district playoffs.

In the Cocalico match, Avery Smith and Chloe Brady led the team lead in kills with seven each while Brady also registered two blocks. Ida Fisher also had two blocks while also serving up four aces and Kayla Kauffman once again led the team in assists with 23. Valerie Martin and Summer Stern each added nine digs to lead in that category.

FOOTBALL

The Spartans' multi-dimensional offense rolled to a 45-6 victory over Central Mountain in a non-league game at New Holland on Friday, October 14.

Quarterback Kye Harting's arm (13-for-18, 138 yards passing) and legs (85 yards on 10 carries) provided three of the touchdowns while Blake Weaver ran for 84 yards on five carries, scoring two more touchdowns.

"Kye Harting continues to impress as he is closing in on a 1000/1000 season, which has only been done by 11 other quarterbacks in the history of the L-L League," Garden Spot head coach Matt Zamperini said, alluding to the passing and rushing statistics of the Spartan junior.

Also piling up yardage on the ground was Jadon Burkholder. The senior running back gained 75 yards on six carries, including a third-quarter 12-yard touchdown.

"Blake Weaver and Jadon Burkholder have done a great job in sharing the duties of the running game," Zamperini said. "Both are having quality senior seasons."

On the receiving end of Harting's 13 completions, there was Zac Nagle, hauling in seven receptions for 85 yards. He scored his seventh receiving touchdown - a 55-yarder from Harting.

"Zac Nagle continues to be one of the leaders in receiving with 38 catches and 685 yards," Zamperini pointed out.

It was only a seven-point game heading into the second quarter. The Spartans (6-2) tacked on two touchdowns - a Weaver 34-yard dash and a three-yard toss from Harting to Gabe Smeltz - and a Nick Gleason 40-yard field goal (yes, this was a multi-dimensional offense) to make it 24-0 at halftime.

Weaver's big 45-yard touchdown run and the 55-yard TD toss to Nagle padded the lead.

The Wildcats (0-8) scored in the final period.

Garden Spot's final two games are against Section Two opponents. The Spartans approach the home stretch with a 3-1 league record.

"We have a huge finish against two excellent teams in Elizabethtown and Solanco," Zamperini said. "The games have section and playoff ramifications. We will have to play disciplined and execute in order to compete."

CROSS COUNTRY

Gavin Reimers and Alan Krock finished back-to-back in Tuesday's L-L League Cross Country Championship race at Ephrata Middle School. Reimers ran the course at 17:57 to finish 42nd while Krock (17:58.2) earned 43rd place. Josiah Smucker was 72nd (18:38.4).

Justin McFalls (20:12.80) Trevor Jones (20:51.70) Ashton Martin (21:32.80) Seth Elias Lantz (21:40.30) and Caleb Stefan (22:01.00) rounded out the boys' results.

As a team, the Spartans claimed 16th place with 426 points. Hempfield won the boys' team championship with 37 points to Manheim Township's 58.

Julia Hoover led the Spartan girls at a 21:50.8 clip, earning 51st place. Also among the Spartans' top five were Hayley Zimmerman (24:53) Kailyn Miller (26:03.3) Haylee Horning (26:36.9) and Ines Tedeshi (27:47.3).

The Garden Spot girls took 18th place while the Township girls (74 points) claimed first as a team.

FIELD HOCKEY

Of the 14 victories the Garden Spot girls' field hockey team had this year, 10 of them were shutouts.

The only L-L League match the team had lost was a 3-2 decision to open the season at home against Elizabethtown.

So, on Monday, October 17, the Section Three champion Spartans (14-3-1) faced E-town in the league quarterfinals at New Holland.

"We had lost in overtime to Elizabethtown at the beginning of the season, so we knew it would be a fun and exciting game to play," Katy Eby, the Garden Spot head coach, said. "Our defense was stellar and kept E-town's offense out of our circle much of the night."

Lauren Horning ended up with both Garden Spot goals, scoring in the first and third periods to lead her team to a 2-1 victory.

"We made our offensive opportunities count," Eby said.

Meanwhile, on defense, Kasey Miller made four saves for Spot.

The Spartans' next game was on Tuesday in the semifinals against Section One champ Penn Manor.

The Comets dominated the league and, similar to the Spartans, ended the regular season with a positive goal differential over 50.

On Tuesday, it was the Comets who advanced to the league championship game thanks to a 4-0 victory at Donegal.

Grace Gerner's goal gave Manor a 1-0 lead at the 3:26 mark of the first quarter. They went on to score goals in each of the next three quarters. The Spartans fell to 15-4-1.

"Our team goals included winning the section for the third year in a row, and getting into league and district playoffs again," Eby said. "We have done well, working towards our goals so far this season. But we still have work to do. This team wants as much playoff hockey as possible."

Coming into the game, Garden Spot was ninth in the District Three Class 2A power rankings with 14 teams from Class 2A qualifying for district playoffs.