The Warriors went undefeated until the final game of the season against perennial district power Midd-West. Lewisburg capped its first undefeated season since winning a state title in in 2020 and going 22-0.

With both being in Class AA, it was only a matter of time to see when they’d meet up in districts.

And here we are as the District 4 Class AA semifinals get underway on Tuesday at Balls Mills for an 8 p.m. game.

“We’ll go back and take a look at what we can do to stay in the game with them. They’re very strong and very well coached. They’re a team we didn’t see in the regular season, so it’s an opportunity for us to see how we match up,” Montoursville coach Bryan Pauling said after beating Wellsboro in Saturday’s quarterfinals, 3-1. “We played them a couple of years ago in the district tournament, and they took us out early. We’ll see what we can come up with over the next couple of days to be ready for them.”

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Lewisburg's Isaac Ayers (9) is all smiles after he headed the ball for a goal on a penalty kick from Viktor Permyashkin (20) with 24:59 left in the first half.

Montoursville handed Central Columbia its first loss of the season this year as the Blue Jays are now 16-3, so Pauling and the Warriors know what it takes to compete against top teams in the district.

The Warriors have a trio of double-digit scorers this year in Bryce Winslow (19 goals, nine assists), CJ Lucas (11 goals, 16 assists) and Quinn Winslow (11 goals, 21 assists).

While those three are outstanding scoring threats, they will run into District 4’s most dominant defenses in Lewisburg, a team which has allowed just three goals all year and has not allowed anyone to score more than one goal against them in a game this season.

“It starts with our goalie Gabe (Pawling). He communicates all game and rest of our team is committed to getting back and supporting. It’s just the small things that allow the other guys (to excel),” Lewisburg coach Ben Kettlewell said after a 5-0 quarterfinal win against Warrior Run on Saturday. “We know when to be patient and when to step up and put on pressure. It’s a group collective. They bought in like ‘hey this is what we have to do to move on.'”

The Green Dragons have been the gold standard in district 4 in terms of the bar of success. Lewisburg has won an outstanding 15 district championships since 2000.

Kettlewell has been around Lewisburg’s program for a while. He’s been the team’s coach since 2017 and was an assistant with Skip Kratzer prior to that. He knows that while Lewisburg may be favored and the team may be outstanding all around, nothing is guaranteed.

“We’re only promised one more game so we have to come back Monday and be at it and figure out whoever we got,” Kettlewell said.