Fazenbaker powers MR over Smithsburg

From Staff Reports

FROSTBURG — Mountain Ridge erupted for six goals — and Stephanie Fazenbaker played a role in all six — as the top-seeded Miners dusted eighth-seeded Smithsburg, 6-2, in the Class 1A West Region girls soccer quarterfinals Tuesday evening.

Mountain Ridge (15-0) will host fourth-seeded Southern (8-6) in the semifinals on Thursday, at 6 p.m.

Fazenbaker scored two goals and assisted on the other four for the accurate-shooting Miners, who needed only 15 shots in getting the six goals. Smithsburg, which had 10 shots, led in corner kicks 4-3.

Fazenbaker got the first goal, seven minutes into the game, unassisted. Smithsburg (4-9-1), which had upset Mountain Ridge in last year’s playoffs, tied it when Ashley Ferguson scored less than two minutes later.

The Miners scored five straight goals, including three in the final 23 minutes of the half, to blow it open.

Kristin Knotts scored on a feed from Fazenbaker to give Mountain Ridge the lead for good at 23:25, and Lauren Filer scored on a pass from Fazenbaker at 17:58. Fazenbaker completed the big first half with an unassisted goal with 26 seconds on the clock.

Knotts scored again, only 2:09 into the second half, to make it 5-1, and Madi Nightengale got the final Miners goal, with 33:58 to go.

Rachel Poffenberger booted home a direct kick for the final goal, with 20:07 left, for Smithsburg.

Mountain Ridge’s Heather Shipe and Smithsburg’s Morgan Moser had eight saves in goal.

Northern 4

Williamsport 1

ACCIDENT — Kaitlynn Fratz scored two goals and Adria Graham had a goal and two assists in breaking the area’s single-season scoring record, as second-seeded Northern beat 10th-seeded Williamsport in the 1A West quarterfinals.

Northern (13-2) will play Boonsboro (7-7-1) in the semifinal round. That game has been scheduled for Thursday, at 6 p.m., at Northern.

Williamsport (8-8) grabbed the early lead on a goal by Amber Shumaker with 36:27 left in the first half.

Fratz tied it just 90 seconds later, with an unassisted goal.

Graham entered the game needing only one point to tie the area record for single-season points and got it when she assisted Whitney Murphy, who put the Huskies on top with a goal at the 29:27 mark.

Graham’s assist gave her 93 points, tying the area mark set by Bishop Walsh’s Lauren Zapf in 1998.

Graham got the record-breaking point when she assisted Fratz with 6:12 left in the half to give Northern a 3-1 lead, then scored the only second-half goal on a feed from Morgan Brosnihan with 36:48 on the clock.

Northern led in shots on goal 10-4. Brittany Mallow had three saves for the Huskies and Erin Gaines had six for the Wildcats.

Boonsboro 5

Fort Hill 1

CUMBERLAND — Sixth-seeded Boonsboro, down 1-0 at the half, scored five unanswered goals in the second to defeat third-seeded Fort Hill in the Class 1A West quarterfinals at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

The win sends Boonsboro (7-7-1) into the semifinals. They will play at Northern Thursday beginning at 6 p.m.

Fort Hill took a 1-0 lead when Leah Yurko scored on an assist by Mariah James with 19:55 left in the first half.

Emily Horst tied it for Boonsboro by converting a penalty kick with 36 minutes left in the second half.

The Warriors then scored three unassisted goals in a span of seven minutes to take control. Amber Smith scored first, breaking the tie, at the 27-minute mark. Jen Sherdel scored at 20:58 and Erin Eslick made it 4-1 at the 19:55 mark.

Abby Duncan completed the scoring with a goal with seven minutes to go.

Boonsboro led in shots 23-5 and in corners 8-0. Becky Smith had three saves in goal for Boonsboro and Alyssa McTaggart had five for Fort Hill.

Fort Hill finished 9-6 overall and went 4-0 in winning the City championship under first-year coach Shera Rowan.

Southern 4

Allegany 0

OAKLAND — Alli Shaffer scored the game’s first goal and assisted on the last as the Southern Rams dominated Allegany in the quarterfinals of the Maryland Class 1A West Region playoffs Tuesday night at Southern High School.

The Rams (8-6) will play top seed Mountain Ridge Thursday in Frostburg.

Southern scored two goals in the game’s first 10 minutes. Shaffer put the Rams up 1-0 on Erin King’s assist at the 34:29 mark. Less than three minutes later, Kaitlin McDade scored unassisted.

Claire Wilkinson gave the Rams a 3-0 halftime lead with her unassisted goal at 10:19.

Shaffer assisted Kelsey Lear’s goal with 11:20 to play for the only goal of the second half.

Southern dominated in shots, 13-3, and led in corner kicks, 3-0.

Vicki Stevens made three saves for the Rams while Allegany’s Urvashi Dayalan had nine stops for the Campers.

Allegany finishes 2-11-1.