With both the boys and girls soccer seasons in the fall for the first time this year, the 32nd Annual Lions All-Star Soccer Classic was played nearly six months after the final kick for many of these local high school area players.

The Mountain Valley Conference/Colonial League boys gave up three goals in losing 3-0 to the Lehigh Valley Conference all-stars. The girls teams tied 2-2 in a rain shortened game. Both games were played last Sunday afternoon at Whitehall High School.

With the long layoff since the last time these players stepped on a soccer field, it was expected that there would be some rust. And most of the players have never played with their teammates before, except for on opposing ends.

For the first fifteen minutes the teams tested each other out and just tried to get back into the flow of soccer.

In the 17th minute, two Emmaus Green Hornets connected on a nice aerial pass down the sidelines. Ben Rhoda chipped a ball over the defense to a running AJ Bishop. Bishop eluded two defenders and laid off a pass to Parkland's Nick Hutchinson who ripped a shot into the back of the net for the first goal of the game.

Roda got his name onto the score sheet just a little over two minutes later.

"It was fun because we haven't seen each other since October with all of the different clubs and everything," added Hutchinson. "It was just good to get back out there and play with friends again."

In the second half, Baidy Ba from Freedom stole an attempted back pass to the goalkeeper, and took one quick dribble to elude the goalie and put away the third and final goal. Ba nearly missed a second minutes later.

The MVC/Colonial team had their chances, but could not capitalize. Team offensive MVP Jordan Ellison of Stroudsburg saw a couple of shots get saved into the hands of the LVC goaltenders.

Liberty's Ian Larimer was named the defensive MVP for the LVC. His high school teammate Sean McIntyre played in a midfield role. Freedom was well represented with Ba, Brendan Kaulius, Quinn Ackerman, and Mohammed Bah. Bethlehem Catholic's lone representative was Matt Collier.

In the girls game, the scoring was higher and at a quicker pace. In the 5th minute Pleasant Valley's Maria Cimino ripped a shot off the crossbar that just stayed out of the net. Just two minutes later, Callie Duliba of Palisades snuck a low shot under the legs of the LVC goalie Victoria Ruvolis for the first goal of the game.

Lightning forced a 45 minute delay at the end of the first half. With just a 20 minute shortened second half, the teams combined for three goals.

Whitehall's Kayla Cunningham tallied her first eight minutes in. Dianna Connor of Pleasant Valley brought her team back into the lead with a ten yard strike. But Cunningham, playing on her home turf, didn't want to go down with a loss in her last career high school game at Zephyr stadium. She leveled the score with just two minutes to play, and the teams ended at a 2-2 draw.

"It was a great experience just being able to put my shin guards back on and to play on this field for the last time," said Cunningham. "It was even more special being able to play with the best girls in the Lehigh Valley. It was such a great experience."

Midfielder Bridget Smith from Bethlehem Catholic took home the scholar athlete award for the LVC team for her work on and off the field. Teammate Abby Guman played up top, and had a few good looks on goal.

Freedom and Liberty also had two representatives. Molly Magnan and Bryna Phieffer for the Patriots, and Vicki Koutsouris and Meghan Mello for the Hurricanes participated in the classic.