Lehigh Valley Magic Soccer Club

The Magic 95 girls are one game away from being the state of Pennsylvania's Challenge Cup champions for 2009 thanks to a gritty 3-2 victory of Lighthouse Power Saturday in West Chester.

The game featured two teams that have gone 4-0 in this year's Challenge Cup.  About 15 minutes into the game, Shay Edwards took a pass from Leandra Sterner and put the Magic on the board as she scored from about twelve yards out.  Lighthouse was quick to answer, though, and the score was tied 1-1 about halfway through the first half of play.  Things changed about ten minutes later as Caitlin Lucas took a pass and dribbled around two players and found the back of the net to give the Magic a 2-1 lead.  Once again, Lighthouse responded and came back a minute later to send the teams into halftime tied a two apiece. Midfielders Rachel Hemphill, Marisa Ianelli, and Dana Mcallister played very well and controlled possession for the Magic in the first half.

The second half became a back and forth battle as both teams mounted numerous attacks.  Devon Korhammer made several nice runs down the right side to tip the field position battle in favor of the Magic. When Lighthouse pressured, goalkeeper Hayley Walther came up big to keep them off the scoreboard.

With about twenty minutes left in the game, Shay gathered a ball at midfield and broke away from the pack. In a last ditch effort to save a goal, a Lighthouse defender commited a foul in the box. With the pressure on, Caitlin calmly put the ball into the back of the net to give the Magic a 3-2 lead.  Twenty minutes is a long time, esoecuially when playing a team of Lighthouse's caliber, but defenders Caralyn Reese, Toni Kimball, Alex Irr, and Tori McCaslin stepped up time and time again to seal the win for the Magic.

The Challenge Cup final will take place on Saturday, May 16th in West Chester against the very tough Vincent United Aztecs.