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Three players score to help Montoursville girls beat Troy 3-1 in districts

By JON GERARDI 6 min read

Montoursville and Troy battled earlier this year in the regular season and the two teams walked away with a 1-1 draw. Montoursville struggled that first regular-season matchup to finish on the scoring end and put more goals in the back of the net.

On Wednesday night at Balls Mills, that wasn't the case at all.

Montoursville's offense was firing on all cylinders and the Warriors possessed and controlled the game throughout en route to a 3-1 District 4 Class AA playoff victory. The win advances the Warriors to the semifinals on Monday against top-seeded Central Columbia, who is ranked in the state in Class AA.

That semifinal match will be at a site and time to be determined.

"Our forwards were really aggressive playing, they connected with each other and released each other into open space really well, which we've been working on. We tied these guys, 1-1, last time and we struggled to finish and we struggled to get those more high-percentage opportunities," Montoursville coach Vic Gorini said. "So, tonight, we really focused on getting those higher-percentage opportunities, and they did a great job finishing."

Troy took a 1-0 lead on Montoursville in the second half with 23:13 to play when Haylie Grove scored in a scrum near the 6-yard box, sneaking in a goal to the left-near post. But Montoursville kept pushing and battling from that point on.

Through the first 20 minutes of play, Troy kept pressing and was getting some chances and looks at the goal, but after the Trojans scored, Montoursville possessed and controlled from there and only allowed one shot on goal the rest of the way.

With 11:15 to play until halftime, the Warriors finally broke through and tied the game up. That's when Regan Aguirre got just inside of the 18 and rifled a great high shot to the far-left post out of the range of keeper Isabella Renzi to make it a 1-1 game.

"That was big to get the tying goal there," Gorini said. "They finally started to connect with each other and things opened up. Good things happened offensively for us."

Two minutes later, the Warriors struck again. Kinsley Schon got 10 yards out and sent a shot to the left to give Montoursville a lead that it wouldn't relinquish from there.

"I just saw that she was coming this way, so I thought I could cut over," Schon said. "I saw she was like leaning one way, so I tried to shoot it around her and it just went in."

Montoursville fired seven shots in the first 40 minutes and six of them were on target as the Warriors had great accuracy to pepper the goal.

The Warriors stayed aggressive in the second half and it paid off with another goal for a two-goal lead.

Marleigh Bainbridge sent in a great corner kick with 24:55 to play inside of the 18 and it landed perfectly for Khaya Bennett to head it in to her left and give the Warriors the 3-1 lead.

"It's good (to spread the offense out)," Schon said as Montoursville had three girls score. "During the regular season a lot of people relied on themselves, but we came together this game and we came out with the win."

After that first 20-minute start to the game, Montoursville settled in and applied pressure. The two teams were even in the first 20 minutes with two shots each, but from there, Montoursville dialed up the intensity and never let up.

"Games go like that, they go back and forth and teams get momentum. It was just using their experience on the field and them having confidence," Gorini said. "They could start to dictate play and decide where the ball is going on the field and really connecting on the field. It was just a matter of them playing through their possession and getting some of their own."

The Warriors out-shot Troy, 12-3, and of Troy's three shots, two came in the first 20 minutes of the game, as Montoursville's back line came up big and didn't give up anything.

"We just communicated more and we realized that if we wanted to win we'd have to stay together and keep possession more than they did," Schon said.

The Warriors almost added a few second-half goals to extend the lead.

With 32:30 to play, Bennett received a throughball into the 18 and had a great 1-v-1 look with the keeper, but the Warrior was tangled up with a Troy defender and wasn't able to get a shot off in time in close proximity of the goal.

Two minutes later, Bennett got inside the 18 and had a shot go just wide out of bounds to the right before she eventually scored off a header.

Bennett also fired a point-blank shot from 10 yards out that Emma Mickley, who relieved Renzi, did well blocking to prevent Montoursville from going ahead 4-1.

The Warriors had a solid scoring chance late in the first half. Schon fired a shot from 10 yards out with 4:30 to play, which was blocked by Renzi but stayed in bounds. The ball got quickly dished backwards towards the 18 line where Bennett sent a low shot in, only to see Renzi again come up with a block. Renzi did well in goal with seven saves to keep it close, but Montoursville simply out-possessed Troy and never gave the Trojans chances to score and rally back.

Montoursville gets an extremely tough semifinal draw against state-ranked Central Columbia, who pummeled Mifflinburg in Wednesday's quarterfinals, 7-0. And Montoursville knows it will be in for a battle.

"We know we have to connect the ball a lot and play defense more than we play offense against them," Schon said about the Blue Jays.

Wednesday's win was Montoursville's first playoff victory in three years after back-to-back quarterfinal exits in 2024 and 2025.

Montoursville 3, Troy 1

(DISTRICT 4 CLASS AA QUARTERFINALS)

T--Haylie Grove, 23:13. M--Regan Aguirre, 11:15. M--Kinsley Schon, 9:17. M--Khaya Bennett (Marleigh Bainbridge corner kick), 24:55.

Shots: T 3, M 12. Corners: T 0, M 6. Saves: T 9 (Isabella Renzi 7, Emma Mickley 2), M 2 (Abby Strassner).

Records: Troy (7-6-2), Montoursville (10-5-3).

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