Hush little Lion, don't you cry...

Here's a token sports recap. They don't make for the best reads, since they date rather quickly, but at least this one manages to work a great singer-songwriter into the action.

THE SLEEP OF THE JUST MISSED

By David O’Connell

(published October 21, 2005 in the York Daily Record)

Elvis Costello once recorded a song entitled “Sleep of the Just.” Had he attended Thursday afternoon’s first-round District 3 field hockey playoff game between third-seeded Red Lion and 14th-seeded Cumberland Valley, he might have crooned about the “Sleep of the Just Missed.”

For that is the sleep that surely awaits Red Lion’s Sara Runkle for the foreseeable future. Runkle’s penalty stroke, which she hooked wide left of the goal with 2:16 remaining, proved to be the difference as the Cumberland Valley Eagles turned the lights out on Red Lion’s season, 1-0.

“Sara’s a senior, and she’s a good player,” said Lions coach Carol Gillmen, “but she had a little too much adrenaline, and it was just a little wide.”

Runkle’s shot at tying the game came after Cumberland goalie Kelly Tenan played mother hen to the brightly colored egg that was the ball and was whistled. Unfortunately for the Lions, they were destined for a goose-egg on the scoreboard.

“It was a hard fought game,” said Gillmen. “We just couldn’t get the ball in the net.”

The lion’s share of the Lions failure to score can be credited to the Eagles defense, which held the Lions to just five shots on goal. But Red Lion was not above returning the favor, doing the Eagles one better by yielding only four shots.

However, Cumberland one-upped Red Lion where it counts most: the scoreboard. Their lone goal came midway through the first half when Robin Fencel’s centering pass dribbled through a host of Lion defenders and found the end of Holly Alspaugh’s stick. She punched it into the net from a yard out, and though Cumberland had no way of knowing at the time, they had just won the game.

Still, Eagles coach Patrick Weigel was upset with himself after the game, in particular for a strategic move that backfired and kept the ball near the Eagles’ goal for much of the last 10 minutes of the game.

“That was one of my genius moves,” said Weigel. “We went with three backs and a sweeper, and I think we started thinking too much about protecting the lead.”

Not that Weigel wasn’t willing to credit the Lions for being a worthy foe.

“They’re just as good a team as we are,” he said. “Today we got done a little bit more than they did.”

The Eagles move on to face Carlisle in second round action.