Kline’s late marker lifts Conrad Weiser past Tulpehocken, 1-0

NEW SCHAEFFERSTOWN>> Graduation losses tore the engine from Conrad Weiser’s twine train — none bigger than the departure of Hannah Racis, who deposited a staggering 28 goals last fall en route to a college career just now dawning, at St. Joe’s.

So naturally, it’s a freshman who scores the first of the goal of the season for Scouts — and just in the nick of time.

Frosh Lindsay Kline converted a cross from teammate Alexa Valunas from out 12 yards out with 3:23 remaining in regulation Tuesday night to give the visiting Scouts a 1-0 win over Tulpehocken in a Berks League crossover match.

Kline dug out Valunas’ pass and nestled an effort to the lower left corner, just eluding Tuple keeper Shayna Bashore, to snap a scoreless tie as the clock waned.

“I just chipped it,” Kline said. “Alexa had kind of chipped it over. I was just so happy and it felt really good to have my teammates hug and tackle me. It’ll be something I’ll alwys remember.”

The outburst from her teammates is understandable — Kline’s late marker not only won it regulation, it was the first goal scored by Conrad Weiser (1-1) this season. The Scouts were shut out in the season opener at Myerstown against Elco on Saturday, meaning they came with three minutes and change of being bageled for 160 minutes to open the campaign.

Searching for offense is certainly a far cry from what head coach Doug Miller and his club had gotten used to in previous seasons with Racis lurking, ever the threat, from the goal line to deep in the hole. It’s a work-in-progress to make these new pieces fit and Weiser’s veteran manager is well aware of it.

“Well, after you lose big players, one of whom scored 28, yeah,” Miller said,”it’s good to have  younger players come up and we’re gonna have to find out where it’s going to come from on a continuous basis.

“We’re restructuring, not rebuilding. because when you’re rebuilding, you’re coming from the bottom-up. We’re basically plugging in. We’re building bricks back into the foundation to build it back up. We have only four seniors.”

Much of the contest was mired in possession and 50-50 battles, with precious few effective probes and a complete lack of build-up from either side. The Scouts managed the only two shots on goal in the first half.

Weiser ratcheted up the pressure inside 15 minutes to play and piled up four corners before striking with Kline.

Tulpehocken (0-2) managed just one shot on target for the contest, but it nearly broke the ice, off a corner midway through the second half. The ball emerged from a tangle of bodies and was cleared away by a Weiser outfield player, not goalie Vanessa Baker. It was as close as the Trojans came to piercing the line.

Instead, coach Paul Zerbe’s young crew came up empty for the second consecutive game.

“We have to work on our attack,” Zerbe said. “It’s early in the season and we have a lot of young players, several of those in key spots. We have work to do. Numbers are hard, they’re lower than last year. We lost four players from a year ago and we didn’t replace them.”

Weiser outshot the hosts by a 4-1 count and led in corners 5-1.