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Jon Gerardi on girls soccer: Swinick’s helping turn Sullivan County around

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Sullivan County players celebrate after a goal against Muncy earlier this month. The Griffins are coming off a season in which they won the program’s first district playoff game and are hoping to continue to improve.

When Sullivan County approached Pete Swinick and wanted him to be the girls soccer coach, Swinick made them a promise.

He wasn’t planning on just coaching a year or two and leaving, he was going to help build a program at Sullivan County. Swinick said he wasn’t sure how it would go that first year.

It resulted with a winless season that first year as the Griffins went 0-18.

“Perfect record: no wins, no ties, and they hired me back. They figured I couldn’t do any worse,” Swinick joked after the Griffins beat Muncy earlier this season, 6-0.

Hiring back Swinick after that 0-18 year was probably one of the best decisions Sullivan County made.

Swinick and Sullivan County continued to improve after that.

The Griffins went 7-10-2 the next year, 6-12-1 the following year and then 13-6 in 2016 and all three seasons, made a District 4 Class A postseason appearance. While Sullivan County lost the first two playoff games in 2014 and 2015 by a combined 12-0 score, it nonetheless showed the improvement from winless to getting into the playoffs.

Then last year, Sullivan County won the program’s first district playoff game and lost to eventual state semifinalist East Juniata in the district semifinals and ended with 15 wins.

From 0-18 in 2013 to 15 wins and a district win four seasons later? That’s the progress Swinick first envisioned when he took over, and he’s is hoping that getting the youth in the elementary and middle school levels interested in soccer will help continue to grow the game at Sullivan County.

Swinick last year coached an intramural team of fourth, fifth and sixth graders, the first time they decided to try to get that going at that level.

“What’s happening now is the interest is growing. I can’t give it all to winning, but there’s a lot of positive vibe in the school. The girls talk to each other. This is one-third of the high school girls, total. All four grades, right here,” Swinick said of the 23 girls on the Sullivan roster. “So what’s happening is they’re coming out. We have a couple kids who never played, but they’re coming out. The interest is growing.

“I did the elementary program last year and we got another coach and we’re working with junior high. We’re not a Benton or some of these other schools where the kids play travel from the age of 8. Not the way it is, but the more of that growth of program we can get going, the better off we’ll be.”

And you can’t argue with the results Swinick’s had as the coach at Sullivan County, just look at the turnaround from when he got there. And getting more and more players to be interested in playing the game, coming out for the varsity team and buying into a winning culture is key.

“We’ll see what happens this year, if we get more this year (in elementary level), it’s starting to work,” Swinick said. “Toughest thing for us is junior high, there’s only two grades to fill a team. Last year they had 22 kids for two grades, that was awesome. So we’re hoping to keep the numbers coming.”

And if those numbers keep improving at youth level, expect to see a lot more players coming out for Sullivan County in the years to come.

LOOKING TO CASH IN

Lewisburg coach Jose Vega was more than happy that his Green Dragons got a win during a steady rain last Monday against Jersey Shore.

It got Lewisburg back to .500 with a tough stretch coming up.

But despite that win, one thing Vega noted after the game was that Lewisburg needs to convert and cash in on their shot opportunities.

Against the Bulldogs, Lewisburg fired 20 shots and only came away with two goals.

A week later in a 3-0 win against Penns Valley, the Green Dragons fired 21 shots and only had the three goals to show.

Yes, a win’s a win, but Vega is hoping a few more goals end up in the net when given that many shots at it.

“We need to do a better job with the chances that we get obviously and we’re working on that. Trying to finish. The effort was there (against Jersey Shore), we played well enough,” Lewisburg coach Jose Vega said. “We played well, other than finishing.”

Lewisburg has the talent to score though with players such as Selena Permyashkin, Chloe Michaels, Ella Reish, Allison Reed, Taryn Beers and Grace Rosevear, to name a few.

HEADING IT IN

Last year, Williamsport did not score a goal all season off a corner kick or from a header.

So far in 2018, the Millionaires have scored four goals off headers and on Saturday, a Kailee Helmrich corner resulted in the Millionaire’s first goal off a corner this season.

“We’re doing something right,” Williamsport coach Scott McNeill joked after Saturday’s 3-0 win over Altoona.

Helmrich’s corner was sent perfectly into the box, took one bounce and found Alexandra Lake from just outside the six who sent a great header to her right, just out of the reach of Altoona goalie Julia Lave’s fingertips for her first varsity goal.

STILL PERFECT

Neither South Williamsport coach Dan Solley or senior Bella Green hesitated when asked whether or not they were surprised that South Williamsport is 7-0 after an exciting 1-0 overtime win over Loyalsock on Monday afternoon. Plain and simple, neither is in the least surprised that they haven’t lost a game yet.

“I think we have had a lot of challenging games and I, as a coach, have been a little disappointed at times even though we are at that undefeated record, but it doesn’t surprise me because these girls are so skilled,” Solley said. “We’re really blessed to be in this situation because the girls have put in so much work and it’s a senior-laden team, so we have a lot of experience.”

And Green echoed Solley’s thoughts.

“No I’m not surprised. We’ve been working so hard these past three years. The senior class has been together for a really long time and we’re really looking forward to the next few games,” Green said.

And the Mounties have beaten some talented teams along the way such as Montoursville, Southern Columbia, Sullivan County and Loyalsock.

COLLEGE ROUNDUP

There’s plenty of area kids having success at the college level, which is always great to see.

Two weeks ago, Kyleigh Balint –a huge offensive catalyst for Montoursville the last two years — recorded her first career assist as a college player in the Lycoming’s 2-1 loss to Penn College. Balint’s played in three games for the Warriors and started one. But she’s not the only area freshman at Lycoming to get playing time.

Hughesville grad Jayden Leighow has not only played in all 10 Lycoming games, but she’s started all of them. Montgomery grad Megan Chamberlin, also a freshman, has gotten time in seven Lycoming games.

Former Williamsport standout Ericka Ludwikowski has played in six games for Rider this year and started in two and added a goal earlier this season.

At Susquehanna, Warrior Run grad Madi Welliver — the state’s all-time shutouts leader in high school girls soccer — has started all eight games for the Riverhawks and has posted 34 saves with a 0.919 save percentage with six wins. And she isn’t the only former Defender at Susquehanna, as former high school teammate Lanie Urbanski is also on the team and seeing some time on the field.

Central Mountain grad Bree Hilty has started all six games this season for Lock Haven and has a 0.684 save percentage. Not to mention Warrior Run grad Ericka Landis (six games played), and Central Mountain grads Makayla Dickey (four games) and Kathryn Myers (four games) all have seen time so far this year as well.

Loyalsock grad Rhiallie Jessell, a former two-time Sun-Gazette Player of the Year, has gotten onto the field once so far for Saint Francis, having played 13 minutes for the Red Flash so far as a freshman.

Another Loyalsock grad, Myriah Saar, has started five games for Brockport and played in all eight, while also scoring two goals.

And Sullivan County’s all-time girls soccer scorer Macy McCarthy — who ended with an impressive 111 goals for the Griffins, scoring 47 as a senior last year — has appeared in four games for Clarion this year.

JON GERARDI’S TOP 5 RANKINGS

1. SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT (7-0) — If anyone was perhaps questioning how good the Mounties are, all you had to do was watch South Williamsport play Loyalsock on Monday. The Mounties have had excellent wins this year over solid teams such as Montoursville, Loyalsock and Southern Columbia and defensively have played well. Megan Weber had a great game with a bad hamstring against Loyalsock.

South has had a few injuries, but girls have stepped up when called upon.

2. LOYALSOCK (6-2-1) — The Lancers started the week by beating Mount Carmel and Bloomsburg in consecutive games before tying Benton in double overtime, 1-1, and then losing a thriller with South Williamsport, 1-0, in overtime. Juliana Cruz has been a good offensive weapon the last few games, having two assists and a goal against the Red Tornadoes and then scoring two of Loyalsock’s three goals vs. Bloomsburg.

3. Williamsport (6-1-1) — Katie Penman came up big this past week for the Millionaires, scoring two goals in a 3-2 win against Mifflinburg and then two more in a 3-0 shutout over Altoona on Saturday. With Sammie Reeder out due to a knee injury, Penman’s being focused on by defenses more, but she’s still showing how much of an offensive threat she can be.

4. LEWISBURG (5-4-1) — A huge win by the Green Dragons on Monday to defeat Central Columbia, 3-0, and move a game above .500. Lewisburg did a good job spreading it around as Ella Reish, Allison Reed and Tanya Omlor all scored. Lauren Gross also preserved the shutout thanks to five saves.

5. Montoursville (4-4) — It was a 1-1 week for the Warriors. Montoursville easily defeated Central Mountain, 7-0, before losing to a tough Selinsgrove team, 3-1. Bella Masias came up with a goal in both games for Montoursville.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: ALYSSA JOHNSON, SOUTH WMSPT. — Johnson came up huge against Loyalsock. The Lancers peppered her the entire game on Monday and each time, she came up with a block and save. South Williamsport’s Bella Green said after the game that she wouldn’t want anyone else in goal behind her, and that display shows why.

It was also Johnson’s third consecutive shutout this week, as she helped blank Southern (1-0) and Sullivan County (1-0).

Jon Gerardi covers girls soccer for the Sun-Gazette. He can be reached at 570-326-1551 (ext. 3127) or by email at jgerardi@sungazette.com. Follow him on Twitter @JonGerardi.

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