New Philadelphia Quakers find success on field, challenges on court

Boys soccer

New Philadelphia’s boys soccer team had a stellar week, posting three consecutive victories over West Holmes, Sandy Valley and Tusky Valley to move back to the .500 mark.

The biggest win was by a 7-0 count over West Holmes in an OCC match. Sandy Valley fell 4-0 and Tusky Valley lost 3-1.

Nathan Ziegler had a huge game against West Holmes, scoring four goals. Elvin Herrera-Lopez, Konnor Kreinbihl and Ryan Sauser also scored. Asher Zimmerman, Herrera Lopez and Diego Bernal added assists. Miles Beitzel earned the shutout in goal. Herrera-Lopez scored a pair against Sandy Valley, one via penalty kick. 

Girls soccer

 New Philadelphia saw its six-match losing streak halted on Sept. 9 with 1 2-0 win on Sept. 9 against Cambridge. The Quakers could not sustain that momentum, though, and fell 6-0 in their next outing at West Holmes two days later. Jillian Hanes and Aubrey Barker each scored for the Quakers in the win over Cambridge. Piper Poole tossed the shutout in goal. Hanes is still leading the Quakers with two goals and an assists. Poole had 83 saves through nine matches. Both the Quakers’ wins are shutouts. 

Boys cross country

The Quakers came in second among 38 teams at the Boardman Spartan Invitational on Sept. 13. The boys totaled 198 points and were easily out-paced by champ Lexington’s 74 in the Division II race. Lexington had all seven runners in the top 33. For the Quakers seniors Marcus and Alec Adelman finished sixth and 10th, respectively. They were followed by junior Kevin Smith (25th), senior Kyle Beaber (42nd) and junior Branson Pringle (115th). They were among 328 finishers in the race.

Girls cross country

 The Quakers finished 21st out of 30 teams at Boardman. Junior Kyle Smith finished a solid 17th overall to lead the way. Freshman Angel Kaufman finished 97th. Sophomore Kamri Patterson (125th), junior Devlin Hamilton (158th) and junior Adlee Klaiber (136th) rounded out the scoring finishers. There were 242 runners in the girls Division II race. 

Volleyball

The Quakers did some good things but still had a rough week, dropping consecutive matches to conference and neighborhood rival Dover and league foe Louisville, sandwiched around a non-league loss to Lexington, falling to 3-9 in the process, 3-5 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference.

The Dover result was predictable, with the Tornadoes among the state’s best teams. New Philadelphia fell 25-9, 25-13, 25-16. A testament to Dover’s strength, no Quaker had double-digit kills. Junior Eberle Baker led with eight. New Philadelphia had just two aces, compared to a dozen from Dover. The Quakers did a nice job defensively at the net with 12 blocks, led by five from junior Lilyanna Wells and three each from freshman Abby Sweitzer and Stella Halter. Senior Aubrie Watson led with nine digs, while Marisa Loader had nine kills.

Louisville defeated New Philadelphia 25-23, 21-25, 25-20, 25-16. Baker led the Quakers with 17 kills and three blocks. Halter added 11 kills. Kaitrin Burnworth added four aces. Watson led with 12 digs, while loader had 21 assists. 

Things started well against Lexington but went mostly south from there. The Quakers took the first set then struggled in a 14-25, 25-14, 25-20, 25-8 loss. Baker had 13 kills and four aces. Watson had 13 digs, two more than freshman Ella Range. Loader led with 15 assists.