Double-dipping

Kenney’s hat trick fuels Lady Little Lions’ rout of Central Mountain

Gordon Brunskill

- gbrunski@centredaily.com

WINGATE — Lauren Kenney found the right time to have the best scoring game of her career.

CDT/Michelle Bixby

State College's Elle Matalavage dribbles away from Central Mountain's Samantha Lofton (5)during the State College girls vs. Central Mountain District 6 Class AAA soccer title game Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009. CDT/Michelle Bixby

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It helped land the State College girls’ soccer team a District 6 Class AAA championship.

Kenney’s first career hat trick highlighted the Lady Little Lions’ 6-2 victory over Central Mountain at Bald Eagle Area’s Alumni Stadium on Wednesday night.

“I’ve never played in a championship that’s meant this much,” said Kenney, who scored all of her goals in the first half.

On the heels of a second straight district title, State College (16-2) heads to the PIAA tournament with a first-round date at the champion from District 4, either Selinsgrove or Danville, which play tonight. It is the program’s 10th PIAA berth.

Rachael Cooke, Kathleen Warner and Megan Porter scored the other Lady Little Lion goals while Samantha Lofton netted two for the Lady Wildcats (17-3).

It was Kenney who provided the big scoring punch, however.

“It’s a great feeling,” Kenney said. “Our midfield did a great job getting the ball up in the corner so we could get the crosses.”

Her first tally came from Lauren Eck, with Kenney taking the ball near the corner of the penalty box and sending the ball high over Amanda Barnes into the net to make the score 2-0.

Ally Reid then sent in a service from the sideline, with Kenney heading the ball into the net from 10 yards away.

“It was just a great service,” Kenney said. “It was right on frame, where we wanted it to be, and I just made a great run.”

Kelsey Graham then provided the service with 1:22 left in the half, getting the ball to Kenney in the middle of the field. Kenney dribbled through the defense and beat Barnes to make the score 4-0 before the half.

“I tried to get a touch on every ball that came my way,” Kenney said.

Cooke started the scoring in the middle of the penalty box. With a defender on her back, Cooke turned and fired the ball to the top-left corner 13:35 into the contest.

“To have her score was like, ‘This is going to come from anywhere tonight so let’s keep working,’” State College coach Kevin Morooney said. “Then, to have one of our forwards, who’s in a position to score. Start to get hot, that did fire us up rather quickly.”

By the time the clock reached zeroes to end the first half, the Lady Wildcats had to wonder what hit them.

“You go into halftime down 4-0 against a team like State College,” Central Mountain coach Ryan Veltri said. “The idea is you just want to come out in the second half and give them everything you have. They were very disciplined, very attacking-minded. Even when they moved the ball around the back, their first thought was to go forward.”

By the time anyone found the net again in the second half, the Lady Little Lions were liberally sending in the substitutes, and eventually all 29 girls hit the field.

Warner drilled her shot into the net midway through the second frame, then Porter completed the scoring with 1:36 left.

In between, Lofton netted both of her scores, with the first a beautiful bending shot on a corner kick and the second from about 30 yards away.

The whole night hinged on a strong opening for the Lady Little Lions, who dominated play with a 21-9 advantage in shots.

“Getting that first goal in really did help everybody relax,” Morooney said. “You get the first goal in, the spacing changes, the vision gets better because you relax a little bit more, and that’s part of our game is being able to maintain possession.”