MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent
Montoursville’s Kenna Bennett (18) and Khaya Bennett (17) chase after a ball during a game this year against Hughesville. The Bennett sisters have helped provide a spark offensively this season for the Warriors.
Anytime you see Montoursville’s girls soccer team having a player on a breakaway, there’s a very good chance it’s one of the Bennett sisters. Either Kenna or Khaya Bennett are constantly making moves against opposing defenses and more times than not, they’re able to capitalize.
Khaya is just a freshman this year, but she’s already emerging as an outstanding player who’s adjusted well to the level of varsity play.
“Khaya made significant improvements to her level of play since last spring’s junior high season. She’s been able to gain a starting role as a freshman thanks to her quality of play as well as her hard work during drills and conditioning exercises during training,” Montoursville coach Vic Gorini said.
And having her older sister Kenna as someone to gain advice from and encouragement is nice for the younger Bennett.
“Kenna is a great mentor to her younger sister and has made a really positive influence on Khaya and how she handles herself during periods of adversity,” Gorini said. “Kenna is among our hardest workers during both games and practices and that has rubbed off on Khaya to make her a better player and teammate.”
Kenna is closing in on double-digit goals as she has eight so far this season and her little sister isn’t far behind her with four and counting.
And that duo is making things hard for defenses to slow down and focus on.
“Kenna and Khaya have both been committed to putting in the extra offseason work that is needed to be a top-tier player in this area. They have the ability to read the opposing team’s defense and find each other on the field,” Gorini said. “I anticipate continued improvements in their level of play each season, both have a strong competitive drive and strive to win games with their team.”
Siblings playing and starting for Montoursville is far from new either. Gorini’s seen plenty of sisters playing well together on his varsity team over his years as the program’s coach now. He coached both Kirsten and Lauren O’Malley and Alexis and Alyse Marchioni, among sibling duos.
“Kenna and Khaya are the latest pair of siblings to come into our program. We have a long history of so many sisters playing on the field together, it’s always a special thing and reflects our long tradition of having a strong community-based program,” Gorini said. “We are down to a couple this year, but the past few years we’ve had five or six sets of siblings playing at any one time.”
“It’s great having her (Khaya) up top to just bring the ball down and she has a really powerful shot,” Montoursville assistant coach Amanda Walter said after a 1-0 win over Williamsport this season. “So when she brings it down and turns and takes that shot, that usually results in goals.”
CLIMBING THE RANKS
Warrior Run senior Raygan Lust ended the 2023 season with a goal in the Defenders’ final game for her to reach 50 for her career. Just 10 games into her senior season, she had reached 75. The talented Defender continues to step up in games and score, seemingly at will against defenses.
She had another goal in Thursday’s 3-0 win over previously undefeated South Williamsport to reach 76 for her career. She’s second all-time in Warrior Run scoring history having recently passed Alecia Gould’s mark of 71 from 1998-2001. She sits behind only Robyn Brown’s 109 (1994-97) for the program record.
“Last year she got her 50th and then we’re 10 games in and she already hit her 75th goal,” Warrior Run coach Rob Ryder said. “So it’s pretty awesome.”
Lust is a huge spark for the Defenders’ offense. Even when she isn’t scoring, Lust’s presence on the field helps teammates get open. That has allowed Katie Zaktansky (12 goals, six assists), Maura Woland (six goals, four assists) and Natalie Hall (five goals, two assists) among many others to produce goals and dish out assists.
“I feel like whenever we need that extra punch up top, she provides it and then gets the other girls going,” Ryder noted. “Any time she gets a goal, we just gain that confidence in ourselves and go back out and do it again and do it again.”
While Lust and Warrior Run’s offense is tough to slow down — the team has scored 61 goals — its defense is just as outstanding.
Warrior Run has played 13 games and yielded just ten goals against during that span.
“We have some great athletes back there. Natalie (Hall), Callie (Ulmer), Ella (Wertman) and Andy Bohart really just have a strong sense of where they need to be and where each other are and they work well as a unit,” Ryder said.
And in goal, Addy Ohnmeiss has proven to be solid. Against South Williamsport, the Defenders held a potent Mounties offense to just three shots on goal as Ohnmeiss did the rest, not allowing any to slip in for a goal.
“It gives our defense confidence to have someone back there who is strong and can make the play when called upon,” Ryder said of his keeper. “So that helps our defense have that confidence in her. She always comes up big for us when we need her to.”
BENEFICIAL IN THE
LONG RUN
No matter how you look at it, a loss is tough to handle. For South Williamsport’s girls soccer team, they tasted defeat on Wednesday at the hands of a talented Warrior Run team which picked up win No. 12. The loss hurt even a little more given it ended South’s perfect season, dropping the Mounties to 12-1-1.
While there were tears after the game on numerous players’ faces, the loss may be beneficial in the end.
South Williamsport coach Marc Lovecchio wanted his team to play the Defenders this year because he knew they were going to be a really good team. And, more importantly, he knows that come playoff time, South will face the best the district — and possibly state — has to offer.
So playing Warrior Run, one of District 4’s best Class AA teams, will pay dividends come late October.
“It’s going to be great (as we approach districts). We wanted to play Warrior Run this year, we knew they were going to be good. It helps prepare us for the playoffs,” Lovecchio said. “It’s that simple. Will we see a team this good in the playoffs? I doubt it in single A, but we’re going to see teams that are aggressive and pass the ball around well. And that’s what we want to do, we want to be prepared for the playoffs.”
South responded on Saturday with a rout against CMVT at home, 13-0, to get back into the win column. On Thursday, that loss stung pretty bad for the Mounties. Give South’s players time though, and they’ll realize how beneficial it is.
FOCUSED ON THE GOOD
Loyalsock’s girls soccer team is fighting for a possible playoff berth after starting the season 2-5. But since that opening rough spot, Loyalsock has gone 3-3-1. So what’s been the key to getting back on the positive side of things?
Positivity, simple as that.
“Just trying to keep focused on effort and not let the negative thoughts get the better of them. Even in our first game against Troy, we lost 3-2, but two of those goals we gave up just making silly mistakes. Trying to clean up some of those silly mistakes and some of the games we’ve had that were close that I felt like we could have done better,” Loyalsock coach Mark Pysher said. “Last year we had some very negative energy and we’re really trying to keep it positive this year, whether we’re winning or losing. Be more respectful of one another and try to keep things going in the right direction.”
And Pysher wants his players to create some good memories when they look back on their playing career at Loyalsock when it’s all said and done.
“As much as we want to do to win, we want to create good fond memories for later on in life,” Pysher said.
Loyalsock’s offense is powered by Lauren O’Malley, who leads the team with eight goals. But while she’s the leading goal scorer, she helps open the offense up for other players on the team such as Madison Perry, Eliana Burkins, Reese Temple or Adara Whitehead to score.
“She is our top scorer. She does a lot for us. If it’s not at striker it’s at midfield, she’s getting a lot better. I know she wants to try and play in college and is reaching out to some coaches, she’s really stepped it up. I was telling her other day teams are looking at the same stuff we are and looking at MaxPreps, they know she’s our top scorer,” Pysher said. “If they focus on her, it can help open up other people. If she’s getting teamed up on, just try to find other ways to contribute, find assists and find passes. Just those kinds of things.”
COACHING MILESTONE
It went unnoticed earlier this year, but Montoursville girls soccer coach Vic Gorini reached a milestone with the team’s second win this season when he reached 150 for his career with the Warriors program.
Gorini has been at the helm of Montoursville’s program since taking over in 2014 and the team has experienced nothing but success and a good amount of titles under him.
Under Gorini, Montoursville has claimed five league championships, two District 4 titles and numerous district and state playoff berths. The Warriors have also been playoff bound all 10 years entering this season.
Gorini consistently gets the best out of his players year in and year out and is able to keep Montoursville at the top of the standings thanks to his team playing to their strengths and staying consistently solid.
Jon Gerardi is the sports editor at the Sun-Gazette and covers high school soccer. He can be reached at jgerardi@sungazette.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JonGerardi.
JON GERARDI’S TOP 5 RANKINGS
BOYS SOCCER
1. LEWISBURG (12-1-1): It’s not often Lewisburg finds itself trailing in a game, but that was the case Saturday. The Green Dragons fell behind to Cedar Cliff 1-0 but didn’t let it rattle them. Rather, Lewisburg responded with a game-tying goal by Viktor Permyashkin before Cohen Hoover put in the eventual go-ahead game winner. Ben Kettlewell has done a great job the last few years with keeping Lewisburg focused one game at a time and not letting any deficit get Lewisburg frustrated.
2. MONTOURSVILLE (10-4): Montoursville dropped a tough game to Northumberland Christian on Saturday, 3-1, after back-to-back wins against Northeast Bradford and Bloomsburg. Expect Bryan Pauling to have his team shake that loss off and refocus on the schedule at hand which includes games against Hughesville, Wellsboro and a road game at Midd-West to close the season out after Monday’s game with rival Loyalsock.
3. MILTON (8-4-1): Milton saw a two-game streak snapped at the hands of perennial District 4 contender Lewisburg. Give the Black Panthers a lot of credit though, they battled Lewisburg extremely tough and came away with a narrow 4-3 loss. Anytime you can hang with a team of the talent and ability of Lewisburg, it’s sure to give you a huge confidence boost moving forward.
4. WELLSBORO (12-2): Since giving up five goals to Hughesville in late September, Wellsboro’s defense has clamped down. The Green Hornets have played four games since then and have allowed just three goals against while outscoring opponents 22-3 as well.
t-5. WILLIAMSPORT (6-6-1): Williamsport had a tough week. The Millionaires battled a perennially strong program in Midd-West tough, losing just 1-0, before tying Athens after two overtime periods. The Millionaires have a tough remaining schedule with games at Lewisburg (12-1-1) and Bellefonte (9-2-1) with a home game against Selinsgrove (7-6) sandwiched between. That rough schedule to close the year will provide good tests for districts, however.
t-5. LOYALSOCK (7-4-3): The Lancers have gone 2-0-2 in their last four games since a 4-1 loss to Midd-West. The Lancers beat Southern Columbia and Shamokin and took Northumberland Chrisitan and Bloomsburg into double overtime ties.
t-5. WARRIOR RUN (9-5): The Defenders are playing too well to be left out of the top 5 rankings, hence the three-way tie for fifth. The Defenders have gone 5-1 in their last six games with the lone loss coming Saturday in a double-overtime game to Southern, 1-0. Prior to that, Warrior Run outscored its five opponents 16-3. The Defenders are peaking at the right time as the regular season winds down.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Dylan Sherman,
Montgomery and Logan Harris, South Williamsport
Sherman came up big for the Red Raiders against a talented Sullivan County team, scoring two goals to give the Red Raiders a first-half 2-0 lead by halftime en route to a 3-0 win. Logan Harris scored a goal and dished out a team-high three assists in South Williamsport’s 5-0 win over the Griffins earlier in the week to help the Mounties secure the victory.
GIRLS SOCCER
1. WARRIOR RUN (12-1-1): There’s a new No. 1 team in the girls power rankings for the first time this season after the Defenders beat South Williamsport, 3-0, last week. Warrior Run has a solid offense and is able to spread the ball around. The Defenders have scored at least three goals or more in each of their last six games. The last team to hold Warrior Run to two goals was Bloomsburg on Sept. 16.
2. SOUTH (13-1-1): After suffering its first loss to Warrior Run, South coach Marc Lovecchio mentioned that he felt it will be beneficial for his players as they prepare for districts. Iron sharpens iron, and Lovecchio knows playing tough teams like Warrior Run in the regular season will help his team know what to expect when districts roll around for Class A.
3. MILTON (12-0-2): The area’s last undefeated team are the Black Panthers. Circle the calendar for Oct. 17 as Milton will head to Central Columbia in what could be an awesome game between two teams with one or fewer losses entering that one. If Milton wins three of its last four games, the Black Panthers will end the regular season with the most wins since going 17-4-1 in 2008.
4. HUGHESVILLE (9-3): The Spartans have gone 4-1 in their last five games with only a 1-0 loss to a tough Bloomsburg team in that span. Hughesville played well defensively against Williamsport on Saturday in a 1-0 overtime win. The Spartans have to play six games in an 11-day stretch to close out the regular season.
t-5. WILLIAMSPORT (8-7): Williamsport went 2-1 this past week with 6-0 wins over Shamokin and Central Mountain before a tough overtime loss to Hughesville. Good news for Millionaire fans though is Williamsport has Nylah Ford back in the lineup after a hamstring injury sidelined her much of the year. Ford will help provide a huge boost offensively, and came back at a great time in the year to help the team prepare for playoffs.
t-5. MONTOURSVILLE (6-5-2): Montoursville coach Vic Gorini always knows how to get the best out of his players and utilize their skillset. That’s part of the reason the Warriors are clicking at the right time here late in the year to hopefully secure a playoff berth. The Warriors beat Williamsport (1-0), Mifflinburg (2-0) and Southern Columbia (6-3) to move above .500. Don’t underestimate Montoursville based on record alone, the Warriors are a tough team all around.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Nylah Ford, Williamsport and Ella Moore, South
Williamsport
Talk about a comeback. Ford returned this past week after rehabbing a hamstring injury that sidelined her since early September and in her first games back, made a huge impact. Ford scored twice in a 6-0 win over Shamokin and recorded her first hat trick of the season in a 6-0 win at Central Mountain. Moore made history at South Williamsport on Saturday, scoring four goals and an assist to become the program’s second-ever 100-goal scorer and reached 50-career assists in the process. It’s not every day you become a 100-goal scorer and a 50-assist player in the same game
