Tough games have prepared 3 area teams for the state playoffs in soccer

No matter what area team you're talking about, be it Montoursville girls, South Williamsport girls or Lewisburg boys, one thing is consistent about the three. They all played solid opponents to prepare for the state tournament.

South Williamsport had to play consecutive tough opponents in Benton, the Mid-Penn co-league champions, in the District 4 Class A semifinals in a shootout before facing the defending state champions in Southern Columbia in the final.

For Montoursville and Lewisburg, it's been tough opponent after tough opponent throughout the regular season and even in districts.

"This was a great way to prepare for the state playoffs. Hopefully we will get another chance to play them in the state playoffs," said South coach Marc Lovecchio said after falling to Southern Columbia.

Nothing will prepare you for states like taking on some of the best. And all three schools begin their state tournament runs today.

South Williamsport will face Brandywine Heights at Schuylkill Valley at 6 p.m in the first round of the PIAA Class A tournament. Montoursville will head to Wyomissing for a 3 p.m. in the first round of the PIAA Class AA tournament.

Lewisburg faces Oley Valley at Midd-West tonight at 7 p.m. in the first round of the PIAA Class AA tournament.

Brandywine Heights finished as District 3 champions and the Mounties (18-2) were runners-up in District 4. Brandywine Heights played two tough games early in the tournament, beating Delone Catholic, 3-2, before edging Fairfield in overtime, 1-0. Both Delone Catholic and Fairfield were also 10-win teams entering districts. Brandywine Heights entered the District 3 tournament with a 7-11 record and enters states 10-11.

It won the District 3 Class A title with a 3-0 rout over 15-win Harrisburg Christian.

The Mounties played solid defensively against a very good Benton team. Offensively, Piper Minier leads South Williamsport's offense with 26 goals, second most in the area. McKaye Wilton also has 11 goals and Payden Matthieson has 10.

The trio will look to have offensive success up top.

The schedule for Montoursville (17-2-1) in the regular season featured plenty of very tough opponents: Northumberland Christian, Wyoming Valley West, Mifflinburg, Southern Columbia, Altoona, Dallas, Milton and state-ranked Central Columbia.

And Wyomissing this afternoon will be another tough one as the Spartans are 22-1 and went 8-0 int he Berks County 3 league. Wyomissing has outscored its opponents, 103-21, and feature a potent offense.

"We've played really tough teams who are ranked pretty high in the state, and that's going to prepare us for states. We're feeling good going into it," Montoursville's Lydia Earnest.

But that's something that the Warriors' backline of Peyton Bragalone, Natalie Reeder, Natalie Bennett and Emma Wood are up for the challenge of.

"Hopefully we've kind of seen everything. At this point, we're well-prepared to handle the teams we'll see in states," Montoursville coach Vic Gorini said. "That's part of why we play a tough schedule: to prepare ourselves."

Much like the Spartans, Montoursville has a solid defense, allowing just 13 goals against while scoring 82. And of those 82, 30 have come from the foot of speedster Lily Saul up top, who leads the area.

In addition to Saul, however, the Warriors' also have Earnest (15 goals) and Jillian Irion (7) who are capable of scoring, among others.

Lewisburg is eyeing another repeat state championship, which would be the program's first since 2015-16 in which the Green Dragons went 49-1. Lewisburg went undefeated last year and defeated Oley Valley in the state semifinals.

They get a rematch with Oley Valley tonight. Oley Valley gave Lewisburg its toughest postseason game last year in which the Green Dragons won, 2-0. While Lewisburg lost a lot from that team last year -- notably Ben Liscum and Anthony Bhangdia -- the Green Dragons have a lot of playmakers all over the field.

That includes Philip Permyashkin (15 goals, 12 assists) and Alfred Romano (14 goals, 14 assists) up top. Carter Hoover also has five goals and nine assists.

"I think a lot of people overlook them and they know they shouldn't be overlooked," Lewisburg coach Ben Kettlewell said.

Oley Valley enters states with a 16-6-1 record and were runners-up in the District 3 tournament after losing to Lancaster Mennonite in overtime, 1-0. The Lynx have a solid offense, having scored 74 goals and average 3.2 per game.

The Green Dragons know the expectation each year in Lewisburg is to get to the state championship, but for senior goalie Tony Burns and the rest of the team, the mentality doesn't change each year. It's just a one game at a time approach.

"In the back of our mind that's always the goal (to win states), but as every team starting with Joey Bhangdia did, we just take it one game at a time and I think that's how we get our program to be so successful because we just take it one game at a time," Burns said.

"That's the goal (to win states). We made it this far, we may as well go for a run again," Permyashkin said.

That goal starts today.