Wellsboro had to replace two of its leading goal-scorers from a season ago. A longtime and successful coach bolted three weeks before the regular season to take the interim women’s soccer head coach position at Mansfield University. The Wellsboro boys soccer team had a lot of questions heading into the 2018 season as it looked to defend its first ever district title and not many answers presented themselves in the season’s opening week when the Green Hornets started 0-3. Here we are in the last week of the regular season and Wellsboro is right where it wants to be.

The Green Hornets have won 13 of its last 14 games, are one of the top teams in the Northern Tier League and are currently the No. 2 seed in Class A and if all goes to plan, Wellsboro’s trophy case might be getting some wanted company.

“Just as winning can add to your confidence, losses can lead to self-doubt and nothing good comes from that mindset. Starting the season 0-3 was certainly not our expectation and I was concerned in how we would respond,” first-year head coach and longtime assistant Todd Fitch said. “I think the turnaround came from a belief that we were doing the right things, continuing to grind, and then getting a few results in our favor.”

“I think there was some doubt, but the upperclassmen knew we had a young group and it would take some time to come around,” senior forward Brett Rudy said. “We just kept working and gaining chemistry both in attack and in our defense and that’s really helped us turn around our poor start.”

At one point, Wellsboro (13-4) won 13 straight, capped by an impressive 2-1 overtime win over Loyalsock (14-3), in which Rudy scored and Will Poirier tallied the game-winner in the 89th minute. The win represented where Wellsboro has come from earlier in the season and could slingshot the Green Hornets right into the district playoffs.

“(That) was a huge game for us,” Rudy said of the Loyalsock win last Saturday. “We knew Loyalsock was very good and we had to bring our best. We played well, and this win really gives us some big confidence going into districts in the coming weeks.”

The Green Hornets lost their two leading goal scorers last year to graduation in Tanner Runyan and Noah Fitch, who combined to score 48 goals. They left a scoring void that needed to be filled. Rudy and Poirier have led that charge as well as another swarm of Green Hornets have stepped up. Rudy leads the area with 33 goals and has 14 assists and Poirier has posted 15 goals and an area-high 19 assists. Kaeden Mann has 14 goals and 11 assists and Joe Grab has totaled nine goals and six assists. Seven players have notched at least three goals and a complete team effort has aided an offensive attack that leads the area with 85 goals.

“We had four guys combine to score 90-plus goals last season. We lost two (Tanner and Noah), but we have two of the four back this year and they are continuing from where they left off,” Fitch said. “We also have others that have prepared for this opportunity. In addition, I think allowing the boys the freedom to be creative in the attack has helped them exploit spaces and score goals.”

Knowing that the team lost two of the program’s top scorers, Rudy knew he had to step up and after scoring 19 goals last year; the NTL First Teamer raised his game to a whole new level this year.

“Most definitely, the senior captains discussed how special last year was but we couldn’t dwell on the past,” Rudy said. “Our returning starters and the underclassmen all worked really hard because we knew we’d have to step up and play well if we wanted success.”

Fitch was an assistant on John Schaffer’s staff since 2010 when the two took over the program. They helped build the program into one of the NTL’s best and even one of the elite teams in the district. But after some early hiccups, the team is back to playing quality soccer that Wellsboro has been synonymous with the last few years.

“It was,” Rudy said if it was a challenge when Shaffer left. “Shaffer is a great coach and a great guy, and he had success with the program for many years. It was a big shock and big change to see him go, but Coach Fitch had been the assistant for many years and he really helped make the transition easier. He has stepped into a bigger role and he’s been amazing leading us.”

Playoff busters

Though Montoursville and Milton won’t be participating in the postseason, that hasn’t stopped them from making life harder on playoff-bound teams.

The Warriors dropped a strong Warrior Run team, 2-1, which hurts the Defenders who were right on the playoff bubble with eight wins with two games to go entering Wednesday. Montoursville also put up a fight against Lewisburg and fell 3-0. The Warriors are more talented than their record would indicate and a three-game win streak nearly vaulted them into the playoff conversation.

In the last two weeks, Milton (4-11-1) pushed two of the state’s best Class AA teams to their limits. Milton fell to Midd-West, 2-0, and narrowly lost a 1-0 contest to Central Columbia. It was just the fifth time Midd-West was held to two goals or less and it was only the fourth time Central was held to a goal or less.

DEVIN BIERLY’S TOP 5 BOYS TEAMS

1. WILLIAMSPORT (12-2-1) — The Millionaires are peaking at the right time, having won nine straight, are 3-0 in the last 10 days and have outscored those opponents, 13-0. It’s the fifth straight year Williamsport has reached at least 12 wins after a two-year stint in which it won a combined five wins. The Millionaires have also wrapped up a HAC I title with an undefeated conference record, their first since 2014.

2. LEWISBURG (11-5-1) — Since a 2-1 loss to Midd-West, the third ranked team in the state, according to pasoccercoaches.org small school rankings, the Green Dragons have won two straight. Lewisburg plays the hardest schedule in the area and maybe in the state. District 4 Class AA is stacked with state-ranked teams Midd-West (15-1) and Central Columbia (15-2) and Loyalsock (14-3) is honorable mention in the pasoccercoaches.org small school rankings, but Lewisburg remains a major threat for a fifth straight district title.

3. WELLSBORO (13-4) — Before a 3-0 loss to NTL Champion Athens, the Green Hornets were the hottest team in the area, rattling off 13 straight wins. Wellsboro enters the Class A field in districts as one of the most dangerous teams with the highest offensive scoring attack in the area and a goalie in Nate Redell that has allowed just five goals in nearly 1,000 minutes of action.

4. LOYALSOCK (14-3) — After a hot start, the Lancers have tapered off a bit. Since winning 11 straight, they have dropped two of four and have a tough game against Central Columbia tonight. After an overtime loss to Wellsboro, Loyalsock bounced back with a 4-0 win over South Williamsport. The last two weeks doesn’t take the shine off an historic season for the Lancers, whose 14 wins are the most since a 16-4 2009 season and they also earned their first league title since 2006.

5. SULLIVAN COUNTY (12-3) — A 5-1 loss to Millville snapped a four-game win streak for the Griffins, that included a 5-2 win over 12-win Hughesville. Sullivan bounced back from that loss with an 8-1 win over Towanda. The Griffins still have three games left and will look to add to an impressive season total and try to match the 2008 team that went 13-7.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: J.R. CONFAIR, WILLIAMSPORT — The goalkeeper turned forward continued an impressive debut season in the field last week with two goals in a 6-0 win over Shikellamy and he added two more in a 5-0 win over Central Mountain. For the season, Confair is third on the team with eight goals and his four assists are fifth.

Devin Bierly covers boys soccer for the Sun-Gazette. He can be reached at 570-326-1551, ext. 3112, or by email at dbierly@sungazette.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SunGazetteDevin.