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Montoursville girls soccer falls to Central Columbia, 1-0 in District 4 Class AA final

By Evan Wheaton 3 min read

DANVILLE -- Second-seeded Montoursville girls soccer and top-seeded Central Columbia both earned automatic state tournament berths for good reason.

Entering the District 4 Class AA final, the Warriors had won 10 straight games and outscored their opponents, 82-12, on the year. Meanwhile, the state-ranked Blue Jays were 20-0 and ready to clash with Montoursville for another District title, their last one coming from 2019.

Montoursville fell to Central Columbia, 1-0, Thursday night at Ironmen Stadium. The Warriors were held to five shots on goal, the Blue Jays six.

"We know they're a good team. We had to come out and play strong, and I believe we did that against a really good team," Montoursville junior Lydia Earnest said. "We might not have had as many shots as we wanted, but we held them to a 1-0 game and we played for our seniors because they deserve it."

After taking over goalkeeper duties after the half for Montoursville, Anna Baylor (two saves) made a diving leap for a save off a corner kick to keep Central Columbia off the board. On the next possession, however, the Blue Jays flew out to their lead.

Senior midfielder Madison Whitesell buried a shot into the bottom left of the net off a feed from Paige Flaugh in the 47th minute. While the Central Columbia bench exploded in cheers, Warriors coach Vic Gorini kept his message to his squad simple.

"Just keep working and hopefully we get one as well," Gorini said.

Both offenses have been potent all year, winning games by large margins. In the district final, both were brought back down to Earth by solid back line play. Neither defense let up and cleared the ball from the zones quickly, never allowing too much possession time for the opposing strikers.

Across both teams, there were only three corner kicks. Both defenses played with discipline and were sharp in and around the box.

"The back line is great. We had a new kid in the back line too tonight because we had an injury. Makennah McCourt really stepped up and filled that hole," Gorini said. "Our back line has been solid all year and I think overall, across the whole field, we just didn't play our best tonight. We feel good that we can make improvements in a short period of time in all manners. Skill, tactics, everything."

Karsyn Cox came up with five saves in net for the Blue Jays. Kierstyn Dawes registered four saves for Montoursville in the first half.

In the final 20 minutes, the Warriors were starting to get closer to finishing drives. They laid more pressure down in the box and almost came up with a goal on a corner kick with just under 13 minutes left.

"Offensively, we played our best," Earnest said. "We played strong and that's what we wanted to do."

With just its second loss of the season coming in the final game of the District 4 Class AA tournament, Montoursville will keep its duel with Central Columbia in mind heading into states.

"This is a tough loss," Earnest said. "It's going to be something that makes us want to go out there and win even more."

Central Columbia 1, Montoursville 0

CC-Madison Whitesell (Paige Flaugh), 47.

Shots: M, 5, CC, 6. Corners: M, 2, CC, 1. Saves: M, 6 (Kierstyn Dawes, 4, Anna Baylor 2), CC 5 (Karsyn Cox).

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