LORETTO — State College Area High School’s girls’ soccer dynasty continued to amass hardware Oct. 29, as the Lady Little Lions captured their 11th consecutive District 6 championship by taking down top-seeded Altoona in the Class 4A title match at St. Francis University’s DeGol Field.
Erica Feese scored twice in the second half to lock up a 3-0 victory for the Lady Little Lions.
Josie Garrigan’s goal just 58 seconds into the contest proved to be the only scoring State College needed. Maya Bokunewicz assisted on Garrigan’s tally, which came on State’s very first shot.
Feese’s goals came five minutes apart in the second half to ice the match. At 46:47, Feese took a pass over the top from Makenzie Graham and sent it home to make the count 2-0. Then, at 41:47, Alison Houtz delivered another pass over the Altoona defense to Feese, who recorded her second goal of the match.
Houtz scored the only goal in State College’s 1-0 D6-4A championship victory over Altoona in 2017.
State College improved to 11-7-1 by beating Altoona for the second time this season. The Lady Little Lions still have to get by the District 10 champ — either McDowell or Erie — to qualify for the PIAA tournament.
BELLEFONTE
Hollidaysburg’s Alyssa Bell scored at 6:08 of the first overtime session to deny Bellefonte in the District 6 Class 3A championship game, 2-1, on Oct. 30 at Bald Eagle Area’s Alumni Stadium in Wingate.
Mallorie Smith had tied to the contest at the 49:56 mark, scoring off a Mia Johnson assist.
Rita Kendziora opened the scoring with an unassisted goal for Hollidaysburg at 22:30.
Cati Besch registered 17 saves for Bellefonte. Hollidaysburg managed to fire off 19 shots on goal compared to eight for the Lady Raiders.
Hollidaysburg also had six corner kicks, while Bellefonte had just two.
The Lady Raiders concluded the season with a 10-8-1 mark. Now 9-4, Hollidaysburg will take on Bradford in PIAA playoff action.
PENNS VALLEY
Penns Valley’s season ended in heartbreaking fashion, as Rylee Pucci scored off Lilly Means’ corner kick with a little more than three minutes left in the second overtime to lift host Somerset to a 2-1 victory against the Lady Rams in the District 6 Class 2A semifinals Oct. 29.
Penns Valley was the third seed, Somerset second. The Lady Rams concluded the season 13-6.
“We knew going in things were always going to be against us with a two-and-a-half hour bus ride and playing a good Somerset team on their own turf,” Penns Valley coach Andrew Beverley said. “While it stinks for this season to be over, I can’t help but smile thinking about how proud I am of this group and what they’ve accomplished.”
Hannah Montminy scored the only goal for Penns Valley, tying the match at a goal apiece with just two seconds left in regulation by curling a free kick past the goalkeeper into the top corner of the net. Pucci had put Somerset ahead in the closing moments of the first half.
Penns Valley thought it had tied the match earlier on Morgan Smith’s shot off Hannah Denger’s corner kick, but the referees ruled no goal.
“To have scored a great goal only to have it not count set us back a bit and we lost some momentum. The game evened out again and we had to make a push in the final few minutes,” Beverley said.
Penns Valley outshot Somerset, 18-12. Both teams took four corner kicks. Kylie Auman made five saves for the Lady Rams. Somerset keeper Courtney Vought had 11 stops.
In the quarterfinals, the Lady Rams advanced with a 3-0 victory over Juniata behind two goals and an assist from Montminy.
Montminy scored just 35 seconds into the contest after a throw-in from Katie Martell and never relinquished the advantage.
“We knew Juniata was a strong team and we had to be ready to start on the front foot,” Beverley said. “The control out of the air, the turn, and the finish for the goal are all things you’d expect to see in Premier League highlights. We couldn’t have asked for a better start.”
At 21:59, Anna Korman ran down a Montminy pass and made it 2-0. Montminy beat a pair of Juniata defenders to score off a Martell feed at the 48:56 mark to set the final.
Auman got the shutout. Penns Valley outshot Juniata, 15-8.
“The duo of senior center back Danae Hurd and sophomore goalkeeper Kylie Auman kept Juniata at bay and didn’t allow any real dangerous chances,” Beverley said. “Those two have been such a great pairing that our defense can rely on to come up big whenever it’s needed.”
