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 on opposing ends.

For the first 15 minutes the teams tested each other 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.

"AJ started out wide and Ben played him a nice ball," Hutchinson said. "AJ brought over the defenders and that left me wide open so I knew I could take an open shot. I just took a touch and hoped for the best."

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

Hutchinson will be continuing his career at Old Dominion next year, but he relished the final high school opportunity to play with teammates Jeremy Motsko and Collin McConnell, and his LVC peers.

"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."

McConnell was injured and could not participate, but was on the sidelines for his team's victory. Motsko was a strong force in the back of the defense that shutout the MVC/Colonial League All-Stars for 80 minutes. The three Trojans were also able to be coached for the last time by the LVC head coach Patrick Birns.

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.

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.

In the girls game, the scoring was higher and at a quicker pace. In the fifth 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.

Parkland reprentatives selected to play in the girls game were Hannah Gombos, Camille Roberts, Jess Wetherhold.