It's hard to win a soccer game without the ball, but Spring Grove forced Susquehannock to attempt just that during Wednesday night's YAIAA girls' soccer semifinal at Central York.

Thanks to the Rockets' stifling defense, the Warriors couldn't mount any offense.

Spring Grove, on the other hand, used pinpoint passing while controlling the ball most of the contest en route to a 2-0 win.

The Rockets (16-3-2) will face Central York -- a 3-2 winner over Dallastown in Wednesday's first game -- in the YAIAA title game at 7 p.m. Friday at Northeastern High School.

Several of Spring Grove's early chances were thwarted by Susquehannock goalkeeper Emily Mullinary, including Katie Holtzapple's shot that went off the keeper's hands and rolled along the goal line before going wide.

That concerned Rocket coach Ashley Rohrbaugh and his assistants.

"That happens, and sitting here on the sidelines you kind of get worried," he said. "Our other coaches say 'One little let-down, and they have a goal.' You may be controlling the game, but now you are down one goal, and they have the momentum."

Those worries went for naught when senior Brittany Lease finally opened the scoring at the 16:37 mark of the first half.

Lease gathered in an Ali Gross pass and blasted a shot into the low corner for a 1-0 lead. It was a goal-scorer's goal, although Lease would deny that title.

"I told them when I shot it was going to count, because I never score," she said. "It was important.

Gross nearly had one of her own, ripping a long shot that was heading right for the cage, but that effort was knocked away by Warrior defender Shannon McKenna.

The junior was robbed again -- this time by Mullinary -- after a beautiful three-way passing play with Maggie Hoff and Courtney Keller.

However Holtzapple made it 2-0 with more than 15 minutes to play in the game, when she drilled home a pass from Amanda Norris.

Defensive stalwart Emily Abel nearly made it a three-goal lead when her restart blast from 45 yards out banged off the crossbar.

Susquehannock (14-5), the Section 2 regular-season winner, had only three true scoring chances, and thanks to the aggressive play of first-year Rocket goalkeeper Stacey Root, none of those shots found the back of the net.

"Our keeper came out and swallowed some breakaway opportunities," Rohrbaugh said. "She played excellent all year stepping into that role."

"They were attacking with so many numbers, it was tough for us," Warrior coach Brett Maxwell said. "We weren't able to really counter ... Every time we got the ball we seemed to give it right back to them."
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