Girls lacrosse coaches at Cocalico, Elizabethtown are close friends, housemates

The friendly rivalry between Cocalico’s Kayci Strous and Elizabethtown’s Cheyenne Benson didn’t happen overnight.

It’s been years in the making for the housemates who are also Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Two girls lacrosse head coaches.

“We met a few years ago,” Strous said, trying to remember the exact time. “Hmm. ... ”

“Seven,” Benson chimed in.

Cocalico vs. Elizabethtown - L-L League girls lacrosse [photos]

Their paths crossed while they coached for the same club team, but after Strous stopped coaching for that team, the two essentially lost contact.

That was until Kayla Hughes, a mutual friend, reconnected the two.

When Strous was hired as an assistant coach at Cocalico in 2021 — the Ephrata grad is in her second season as the head coach — it meant the two would meet on the field at least twice a year in Section Two games.

Since then, Strous, Benson and Hughes have been sharing a house.

“Our friendship came first,” said Benson, a Manheim Township grad who is in her sixth season as coach of the Bears. “All three of us have been really good friends for a few years now, so when living together became an option, we decided to go for it.”

When Strous and Cocalico face Benson and Elizabethtown, it makes for interesting and competitive games.

“We really love playing them,” Elizabethtown junior Danielle Bruno said of the Eagles. “It gets pretty competitive, but it’s all for the game of lacrosse.”

“We just show up,” Strous said. “We know we are going to have a good time. During game time, we’re focused.”

This season, Cocalico won both matchups, including a 14-10 victory on Thursday at Elizabethtown’s Jane Hoover Field.

Melia Van Zant got the scoring started for the Eagles (9-1 Section Two, 10-4) off a feed from Avery Hershey in what would be a wire-to-wire win.

Because of just how well the coaches know each other, it creates a chess match-type contest when the teams meet.

“Our strategies are similar but different,” Benson said. “My plan going into today was to face-guard Dani Sauder and I knew that if I face-guarded Sauder, within a goal or two, Kayci would start face-guarding Dani Bruno.”

As expected, Strous and Benson called for the face-guard, hoping to contain players on the opposition.

Sauder, who leads the Lancaster-Lebanon League in goals, was limited to just one.

Izzy Rios, Hershey and Van Zant took charge of the Cocalico offense early, helping the Eagles establish a 6-2 lead after the first quarter.

Despite the effort from Bruno, who finished with 7 goals and 2 assists, Elizabethtown (5-5, 7-8) was unable to match high-powered Cocalico in the final section game of the season for both teams.

Cocalico will be back in action Monday for a nonleague game at home against Central York at 7 p.m.

Elizabethtown hosts Ephrata on Tuesday at 4:15 p.m.