The eighth-seeded Whitehall girls soccer team held top-seed Allentown Central Catholic scoreless for the first half of an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference quarterfinal match before losing to the Vikettes, 5-0, on Oct. 15 at Cedar Crest College, Allentown.

“I thought we played really well all game long, and we just ran out of gas,” said Whitehall coach Chris Bleam. “They’re deeper and more athletic than we are, and they kind of wore us down, but I was really proud of our kids how they competed. The score is what it is, but we made it awfully difficult for the best team in the league to play tonight. I’m proud of our team for that.”

Whitehall defenders Jade Alvarez, Larken Good, and Olivia Tabarani stymied Central’s offense for 40 minutes along with Zephyr goalie Cora Musselman, who made 13 saves in the match.

Central’s Ashley Fanger started the Vikettes’ scoring spree in the 46th minute, and Meredith Eisenmann found the back of the net 10 minutes later.

Charlotte Patterson’s goal sailed into the upper right corner for Central’s third goal.

Juliet Snyder scored twice within 30 seconds, the second after Musselman came out of the box to leave the net wide open.

“I think this gives us some encouragement,” said Bleam, regarding the Zephyrs’ experience in a playoff situation. “We’re still short-handed. We’re not back to full strength, and we don’t know when we will be, but it’s something to build on. Not that we had any semblance of an attack, but a different opponent is a different challenge, and maybe we’re more confident in our ability to defend, and that helps us create some more attacking chances. That’s what we’re going to address between now and our next game.”

Whitehall will compete in the District XI Girls Soccer Tournament later this month.