Times-Shamrock Staff Report

Mountain View got the early lead.

It received excellent goaltending.

The only thing the Lady Eagles couldn’t do was hang on.

Warrior Run, the 2010 and 2011 Class A girls state champion in soccer, took a step toward a third crown Tuesday night, (Nov. 4) rallying in the second half to knock off the District 2 champs, 2-1, in the first round of the PIAA playoffs at Balls Mills Soccer Complex outside Williamsport.

En route to the district championship — and all season, in fact — Makenna Whitaker provided a scoring punch for the Lady Eagles. That didn’t change in the state playoffs as she put the visitors on the board eight minutes before halftime for a 1-0 lead.

Whitaker’s score was a sliding goal past Warrior Run keeper Madi Welliver on a breakaway.

“We honestly talked about that goal the last three days, that exact plan,” said Mountain View coach Erika Lewis. “We’d seen it on video online, we saw that as a weakness. We practiced and practiced that, and it came through.”

So did keeper Hannah Phillips, who was called upon to make 13 saves in a game that saw Mountain View outshot, 18-4.

The first big one came four minutes before Whitaker gave her club the lead.

Warrior Run’s Erika Landis spun around a defender and got off a shot, but Phillips was there to stop the attempt.

Finally, the Defenders’ thrust was just too much to withstand, and Madison McConnell set up Landis’ tying goal four minutes into the second half, crossing a ball inside the 6-yard line that Landis was able to finish.

“I think (McConnell) put the team on her back tonight,” Warrior Run coach Jen Allen said. “She said we’re not losing this game. We made sure everyone communicated.

“In the first half, we ran into each other. In the second half, they ran into each other. We didn’t stop and it showed in the goal.”

Phillips kept the match tied when she stopped Olivia George’s 25-yard shot in the 63rd minute, an effort that she got enough of to deflect it off the crossbar, then made the save when George tried to score on a header on the rebound.

Then it was Gabby Heiss’s turn to keep Mountain View off the board. On one of its rare scoring chances, Heiss chased down Karlee Weida at the 18-yard line, right after she’d taken a pass back from Whitaker and looked to put a shot on net.

Eight minutes later, Warrior Run created the break that decided the game.

McConnell fed the ball to Rachel Grow, who in turn laid the ball in position for George, who scored the deciding goal with under three minutes to play.

“They had a lot of opportunities, and we pulled through on each,” said Lewis. “It’s disappointing to see one go in late after we’d worked so hard the entire game.”