Local Sports

District 4 Class A field is tough bracket for girls soccer this year

It's late October. The leaves are changing colors, the weather's a tad bit cooler, there's pumpkin space flavored drinks everywhere and, most importantly, the District 4 soccer playoffs are about to get underway.

The area has a number of teams who qualified this year throughout the four classifications, and all are hoping to make deep runs.

So who's got a favorable bracket draw? Who can make it to the final in their respective class? Let’s break it down, shall we?

CLASS A

A few area coaches were asked through the season about this year's District 4 Class A tournament before it had even been determined just based on the number of talented teams who were going to be in it.

Brutal.

A gauntlet.

Ridiculous.

That all describes it and it's going to be an absolute battle coming out of Class A. Whoever claims the crown will be more than battle tested heading into the state tournament.

Line Mountain is the top seed in the field after going 17-2 in the regular season. The Eagles' only losses came to Warrior Run at home, 5-4, in mid-September and against East Juniata at home to close out the season, 1-0.

Line Mountain, ranked No. 3 in the state in Class A, has a number of players who can put in goals and have been led by senior Cora Moyer (22 goals, 10 assists), freshman Emme Shingara (21 goals, 12 assists) and senior Jenna Foulds (14 goals, three assists).

Add in senior Milena Mariano (eight goals, nine assists), sophomore Abby Hall (seven goals, eight assists) and senior Kendall Bowman (three goals, 10 assists, and Line Mountain is an extremely tough offense to contain and shut down with multiple scoring threats.And in goal, senior Addie Nelson has been playing well, allowing just 14 goals all year with 11 shutouts. She has a .900 save percentage and makes things tough for forwards.

Line Mountain will face either South Williamsport or Wyalusing, who play a play-in game. South Williamsport is a young, but dangerous team. The Mounties qualified with a 6-0 win late in the season against Montgomery and have been playing great down the stretch when it counts.

Kloey Persun, Coco Kline and Sofia Sartori, among others, have been stepping up to find the back of the net and Annika Harding is putting a solid performance together in net.

Loyalsock is the tenth seed and came up big in their final four games to go 7-7-4 in the end and make it to districts for the second time in three seasons and just third time since 2018. The Lancers are looking for their first playoff win since 2017 and have a tough opponent in the first round with Millville.

Mackenzie Miller and Madi Perry are both captains and lead Loyalsock's offense with 14 and 12 goals, respectively. Miller has four assists while Perry leads Loyalsock with seven assists. The team also has Rachel Buffington, Olivia Alberts and Mallory Paronish who have shown they can find the back of the net when called upon.

Loyalsock's defense is playing well and in goal, Ava Deknecht has stepped up her game from last year. Deknecht has nine shutouts this year, second-most in the area behind only Wellsboro's Jadyn Dunlap (10).

Deknecht's 110 saves are also fourth-most in the area as she's come up big for the Lancers time and time again.

On the bottom half of the bracket, Hughesville is seeded sixth and faces Montgomery, who is having a great year.

Kat Temple leads Hughesville with 11 goals and five assists while Reagan Sellers (nine goals), Jaysa Kiess (six goals, four assists) and Sierra DeWire (four goals, five assists) have stepped up, same with Tori Morgan (three goals, four assists). Kalia Hack plays well in goal and Hughesville's back line makes things tough for opposing forwards and midfielders trying to score.

Montgomery is playoff bound for a third consecutive year and the Red Raiders are hungry to earn their first-ever district playoff victory.

Like Hughesville, Montgomery has a scoring-by-committee offense as six players have six or more goals this year in Aubrey Staggert (seven goals, eight assists), Aleaha Grimm (seven goals, six assists), Miranda Staggert (six goals, one assist), Addisyn Grimm (six goals, five assists), Ryleeanne Rupert (six goals, one assist) and Brooke Knoebel (six goals, three assists).

Both teams are similar and should match up well with each other in what should be a good game.

Bloomsburg is seeded No. 2 in the field and East Juniata is No. 3. Bloomsburg will play either Millville or Loyalsock and East Juniata receives either Hughesville or Montgomery. Bloomsburg is ranked No. 9 in the state in Class A, one of just two District 4 teams ranked.

Bloomsburg's Gabby Kashi is having an outstanding sophomore year as she has scored 34 goals with 10 assists. Delaney Zentner has 11 goals and 11 assists and Hannah Magill has dished out 18 assists with nine goals scored. Those three lead a potent Panthers' offense.

In the top portion of the bracket, Southern Columbia -- last year's District 4 Class A runners-up -- gets a matchup with fifth-seeded Warrior Run. Southern beat Warrior Run earlier this year, 4-0, and the Defenders no doubt want some revenge.

Warrior Run's lead by senior Scarlett Dunkleberger's 19 goals and senior Nat Hall's 10 goals. Those two have been a focal point of Warrior Run's offense and Southern knows they'll have to be contained.

The Tigers, meanwhile, has a talented duo with Kailee Helwig (27 goals, five assists) and Alyssa Conner (10 goals, 10 assists).

PREDICTIONS

FIRST ROUND--South Williamsport def. Wyalusing; Loyalsock def. Millville; Hughesville def. Montgomery. QUARTERFINALS--Line Mountain def. South Williamsport; Southern Columbia def. Warrior Run; Bloomsburg def. Loyalsock; Hughesville def. East Juniata. SEMIFINALS--Line Mountain def. Southern Columbia; Bloomsburg def. Hughesville. FINAL--Line Mountain def. Bloomsburg.

CLASS AA

Four area teams are competing in the Class AA field with eyes on district gold.

The top seed in the field should surprise no one in Central Columbia. The Blue Jays have been absolutely dominant this decade, winning the last five consecutive District 4 Class AA titles, and six of the last seven. And the Blue Jays are no doubt favored to win another title this year.

Central Columbia went 17-0-1 this year. The only team who tied them was Northwestern Lehigh in mid October, 3-3. Northwestern Lehigh is the fifth-ranked team in Class AA in Pennsylvania and the Blue Jays enter districts ranked No. 2 in the state behind only District 7's South Park.

The Blue Jays will face eighth-seeded Mifflinburg in the quarterfinals. Central Columbia has a pair of 100-goal scorers in Quinlan Blake and Joey Devlin. Blake has 48 goals and 13 assists this year while Devlin has 38 and 19. Riley Costana also has 11 goals and 10 assists and that trio is an unstoppable group to try to shut down completely.

Montoursville is seeded fifth and has a quarterfinal matchup against Troy, the fifth seed. It's a rematch from an Oct. 10 matchup where Troy. and Montoursville battled to a 1-1 draw.

Montoursville has played well defensively down the stretch in their final six games. They let up just two goals to state-ranked Bloomsburg in a 2-0 loss and two goals to Selinsgrove in a loss. They tied Troy, 1-1, and Williamsport, 1-1-, and blanked Danville and Mifflinburg.

That defensive line will be looking to play solid against Troy. Offensively, Khaya Bennett and Kinsley Schon have been two playmakers up top and can help spark the offense.

This year hasn't been the best in terms of wins for Milton, but the Black Panthers are still playoff bound regardless with a 5-10-3 mark. But Milton has a very tough first-round matchup against Midd-West (14-2-2).

Milton has a number of players banged up from earlier in the year, but Delia Reynolds-Miller has been playing great in goal and continues to get better after stepping up after an injury to their goalie in the summer.

Midd-West has been led by junior Emery Peters, who has scored 22 goals and senior Ava Aitkins, who has a team-high 21 assists and eight goals scored. Milton knows it has to slow them and Bella Knepp (four goals, five assists) down if it wants to win.

At the bottom of the bracket, third-seeded Wellsboro plays sixth-seeded Lewisburg. Wellsboro has never made it to the district semifinals in program history, and a win against Lewisburg would accomplish that milestone.

Haylie Smith has been having a great year for the Green Hornets as she has 25 goals as a sophomore this year to lead the team. Luna Moyer has scored six goals and Kate Bryant has four goals and six assists as that trio have sparked the team's goal production. In goal, Jadyn Dunlap is having a fantastic senior year. She broke the school's all-time saves record and shutouts record this year and is looking to keep building on her year.

Peyton Spigelmyer leads Lewisburg's offense with 11 goals and three assists while Madelyn Schwartz has eight goals and six assists.

It's hard to pick against Central Columbia in Class AA and, given their recent success, they should claim another crown next week.

PREDICTIONS

QUARTERFINALS--Central Columbia def. Mifflinburg; Montoursville def. Troy; Midd-West def. Milton; Wellsboro def. Lewisburg. SEMIFINALS--Central Columbia def. Montoursville; Midd-West def. Wellsboro. FINAL--Central Columbia def. Midd-West.

CLASS AAA

No area teams are in the Class AAA field, but lets take a look at the four teams.

Selinsgrove is seeded No. 1 and the Seals are eager to capture their first District 4 championship since the 2020 season. The Seals lost to Milton in a heartbreaker in last year's semifinals. This year, the Seals get a semifinal matchup against fourth-seeded Shikellamy.

Selinsgrove has a trio of goal scorers with 10 or more goals and one other player with more than 10 assists. Morgan Wenzel has 16 goals and five assists, Addison Wenzel has 14 goals and 12 assists, Joslyn Zacharda has 10 goals and six assists and Karsen Dodge has 12 assists with five goals.

The Braves are led by senior Lauryn Ross's 21 goals and 16 assists while junior Kaci Grimm has 13 goals and 10 assists.

Selinsgrove is ranked No. 4 in the state in Class AAA, the only District 4 school ranked this year.

On the bottom half of the bracket, Danville is seeded second and plays third-seeded Athens. Danville has struggled the last few seasons with this being just the second playoff berth since 2019. The Ironmen are 11-3-3, the most wins in a single season since going 14-2-2 in 2015.

A lot of that success has come from the foot of sophomore Delaney Willoughby who has 22 goals and five assists this year while senior Maddy Willoughby has five goals with eight assists.

PREDICTIONS

SEMIFINALS--Selinsgrove def. Shikellamy; Danville def Athens. FINAL--Selinsgrove def. Danville.

DISTRICT 2-4 CLASS AAAA

While the brackets haven't been released yet, Williamsport gets a first-round matchup against Hazleton and the Millionaires are playing well.

Don't let Williamsport's record deceive you, Williamsport may be entering districts with just seven wins, but the Millionaires also have seven ties this year, the most ever in program history. That shows the resilience though of the team to not let up a goal late and allow a loss and hold on for a tie.

The Millionaires have had a number of players step up this year including the freshmen duo of Ella Brelsford (seven goals, six assists) and Brynli Carnevale (seven goals, three assists). Breah Phillips, a senior, has six goals and four assists as well for the Millionaires.

In goal, Valerie Beiter is just a freshman but has come up big throughout the year and keeps getting better game after game. She has three shutouts this year and has given up just 15 goals all year with 52 saves.

The Millionaires won the District 2-4 Class AAAA title last year in a dramatic shootout against Wilkes-Barre and the team's motivated to repeat as champs this year.