On Wednesday, Williamsport erased that feeling and clinched the District 2-4 Class AAAA championship with a thrilling penalty kick win, giving Williamsport not only its first district championship since 2020, but also a state tournament berth.

To say there were may emotions on Wednesday night wouldn’t give the team its proper respect.

“Pure happiness. From players, coaches and parents. I couldn’t describe the smiles and feelings we all felt after that last penalty went in,” Williamsport coach Beckham Sibiski noted. “Although we may not have been favored by most going into the final, we always knew that we could win and never stopped believing that. When three or four years of hard work comes together, and it finally pays off, it’s nearly impossible to describe that feeling of happiness.”

For Sibiski, it’s his first district title as Williamsport’s coach after taking over the program in 2022.

Linah van Emrik of Williamsport stops the run at the goal by Regan Aguirre of Montoursville at the Balls Mills Soccer Complex. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

“In speaking to a colleague after the game who had attended the game, he told me he could see the relief in my face and emotions,” Sibiski said. “All along, many people knew this was a group that could win and had come so close to doing so two times. This was their last chance, and we all knew it and felt it — we had to get it done, and we did.”

Now the Millionaires turn their attention to the PIAA Class AAAA tournament on Tuesday. Williamsport has a first-round matchup against Central Bucks South at Balls Mills at 6 p.m.

Williamsport has been battle tested this year and had an extremely tough schedule. Of all of the Millionaires’ losses, each had been to a team with at least 13 regular-season wins.

“In some of those games, we were unfortunate to lose and we were arguably the better team,” Sibiski said. “Of course, there were some deserved losses, but to play that high-quality scheduled prepared us well for the districts and hopefully for the first round of states against a great team out of a very strong district.”

Williamsport has a solid team back to front. McKylee Vollman has played well in goal, the Millionaires’ back line is tough and up top players like Jaelynn Helmrich, Breah Phillips, Loisa Hofstrom and Deborah Shultz can score seemingly at any time. So it makes sense that Sibiski feels the sense of a team is their biggest strength.

“We have seniors that are close with freshmen, we have a bench that is excited to be there and we have a group of 38 individuals that have all bought into being successful, all while having fun doing it,” Sibiski said. “There is no bigger strength than being able to unite as one team.”

Vollman has been tested in games in goal as she has 117 saves this year, averaging 5.9 per game.

Offensively, Shultz leads the Millionaires as a senior with 17 goals and has nine assists. Hofstrom, a freshman, has 11 goals and seven assists. Add in Helmrich (nine goals, 10 assists) and Phillips (seven goals, five assists), and Williamsport can strike from a number of different ways.