A year removed from history, Cumberland Valley repeats as Mid-Penn Conference champion
Two Eagles reached the 200 career point milestone in CV's return to Mid-Penn glory.
HARRISBURG, Pa. — On May 14, 2025, Cumberland Valley won its first Mid-Penn Conference gold medal at Landis Field in Harrisburg, a long-awaited win for a program that has been making the trip across the Susquehanna River for the game regularly.
365 days removed from the program’s first conference championship, the Eagles lined up for gold medals yet again, beating Red Land, 12-4, and improving their undefeated record to 19-0.
Still, head coach Karen Keitel doesn’t feel like the conference has flipped from a dominant run from Hershey into CV’s hands.
“I don’t feel like that,” said Keitel. “Maybe that’s how people see it. I knew last year and this year would be pretty good, but then we had a lot of injuries. Two of my all-stars had ACL injuries, and we just really weren’t sure how things were going to work out. But this is better than I expected.”
Capri Lang, a Mid-Penn first-team member from last spring and Mercer recruit, missed nearly ten games due to injury earlier this season. Emma Carlisle and Brynn Schneider, second- and third-team members, respectively, have missed the entire season.
So far, the Eagles have been able to withstand adversity. The team’s closest game was a 12-9 win over Central York on May 4, and has won 15 games by seven or more goals.
The Eagles jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the first quarter against the Patriots, by way of six different goal scorers.
Payton Basehore, Lily Trautlein, Quinn Trively, Capri Lang, Lily Hopwood, and Lorena Moon all scored in the first 12 minutes, sharing the wealth for the Eagles.
“Something we practice a lot is not holding on to the ball for too long,” said Keitel. “It’s just a thing we do. ‘Don’t hold it for more than three seconds. Pass, pass, pass,’ like a hot potato. It was kind of rough when we started in the season, but now it’s working pretty well. I think if you can move the ball quickly, it just makes it hard for another team’s defense.”
Red Land’s Grace Updegraff, a Seton Hill recruit, scored the team’s first goal at the 7:53 mark in the second quarter.
Updegraff scored all four goals for the Patriots and secured seven of the Patriots’ 15 draw controls. Cumberland Valley tallied only five draw controls, securing possession in midfield, despite controlling the entire game.
That’s a testament to the Eagles’ defense, which caused nine turnovers to secure possession.
“Our defense did amazing today, and our defense has been amazing all year,” said Basehore, who takes the draws for Cumberland Valley. “That’s one of our key focuses at practice. We’ve been having really good chemistry this year. … We only let up four goals in a Mid-Penn Championship game, which is fantastic.”
Basehore had a hat trick by halftime, with the Eagles leading 9-2. The Temple pledge went on to score four goals on eight shots, the same exact tally as Red Land’s Updegraff.
Two Eagles tallied their 200th career points: Trively and Lang. Lang scored a goal with 6:26 remaining, on an assist from Trively, which scored her milestone moment.
“I’m really excited,” said Keitel. “Capri, in particular, she missed close to ten games with injury, and she missed part of a season a couple years ago with MCL [issues]. And, she’s primarily a defender, so for her to get 200 points just really speaks to the work she puts in. She’s really a defender first, attacker second.”
Trively dished an assist to Basehore just before halftime that tallied the career milestone for the senior heading to West Chester. Trively is well aware of the history within the program, only earning a spot in one PIAA tournament in 2014, despite recent regular season success.
“We haven’t really made it past the second round of districts,” said Trively. “We haven’t made states in a long time, so that’s definitely our goal this year. We just want to come out hot in districts and hopefully get that first district game win.”
The Eagles have an automatic bye to the District III quarterfinals and will face the first-round winner between Chambersburg and Exeter Township. The quarterfinal matchup is set for 5 p.m. on May 19 at Mountain View Stadium.
“These girls are really driven,” said Keitel. “They’ve had their sights set all year to get further than we did in the past. … I don’t think there’s going to be a let-up for the next round.”