Valley View girls win district title

SCRANTON – Gabby Santarelli sent a hard shot into the right side of the net on the final attempt of a penalty kick shootout Thursday night to lift Valley View to a 2-1 victory over Western Wayne in the District 2 Class AAA girls’ soccer championship game.

The teams were tied, 1-1, at the end of regulation and remained that way through two 15-minute overtimes in which Valley View took three shots and two corner kicks while Western Wayne had two shots.

After each team missed on its first attempt of the five-round penalty kick shooting, the next three girls from each team converted.

Western Wayne’s Kristine Nilsen, Charlcie Brink and Courtney Kromko made their shots only to be followed by successful attempts by Valley View’s Kristen Eberhart, Sara Dubravcak and Taryn Tomczyk.

Valley View goalie Jacqui Rossi reached high to stop Kacie Urian’s attempt, giving Santarelli a chance at the winner.

Santarelli put the ball well out of the reach of Western Wayne goalie Allie Clauss to decide the shootout.

With the win, Valley View advances into the first round of the state tournament Tuesday.

The teams were scoreless until the final 8:26 of regulation when Rachel Bateman came up with a loose ball near midfield for Western Wayne and dribbled all the way into the penalty area. Bateman slipped a pass to Brink, who converted to put Western Wayne in front.

Western Wayne had gone nearly 25 minutes without managing a shot before jumping in front.

Tomczyk made a long diagonal pass from the right side just on Valley View’s side of midfield. She got the ball all the way through to Dubravcak headed toward the goal.

The win was the third of the season for Valley View over Western Wayne since losing in the first meeting between the teams in the first week of the season.

Western Wayne reached the final with a 2-1 victory over Scranton Prep in overtime.

Montrose won the District 2 Class AA title with a 1-0 victory over Mountain View.

The Lady Meteors had upset Lackawanna League North Division champion Lakeland, 2-1, in the semifinals.

Montrose beat Mid Valley, 5-1, and Mountain View shut out Carbondale, 2-0, in the quarterfinals. Mountain View shut out Holy Cross, 3-0, in the semifinals.

BOYS’ SOCCER

Abington Heights and Holy Cross are headed to the state playoffs, which open Tuesday.

Abington Heights won its third straight Class AA championship and Holy Cross won Class A championship.

Because the top two teams reach the state playoffs in Class AA, Abington Heights actually clinched its state berth the same way it had a year ago – with a 3-0 semifinal victory over Dallas.

Derek Klingman and Zack Shiposh scored from near the right sideline in the final 8:41 of the first half Tuesday night to give the Comets the semifinal win at Scranton Memorial Stadium.

“I thought they came out strong,” Abington Heights coach Steve Klingman said. “They came out and took the play to us for about 20 minutes.

Abington Heights had a 14-4 shot advantage until Dallas had the only four shots in the final 16 minutes.

The Comets went on to claim the district championship Thursday night with a 5-1 win over Coughlin, which had gone unbeaten while winning the Wyoming Valley Conference Division I title.

Tommy Steinbach scored off a Ryan Kusy assist with 8:47 left in the first half for a 1-0 Abington Heights lead.

Steinbach scored again while Derek Klingman, Zach Shiposh and John Laboda also added goals in the second half.

Abington Heights opened the tournament with a 5-1 romp over Crestwood while Dallas was eliminating Scranton Prep, 2-0.

Holy Cross had its toughest challenge from unbeaten Lackawanna League Division 3 champion Forest City during the semifinals.

The Crusaders beat defending champion Mountain View, 3-1, in the quarterfinals. After giving up a late goal to send the game into overtime, Holy Cross recovered to defeat Forest City, 5-4. The Crusaders then handled Montrose, 3-0, in the championship game.

Forest City shut out Wyoming Seminary, 2-0, and Hanover Area eliminated Lakeland, 7-1, during the quarterfinals.

GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL

Dunmore and Lackawanna Trail reached the District 2 championship matches before losing.

State-ranked Holy Redeemer was in control throughout the Class AA final while sweeping Dunmore in three games. The Royals won, 25-10, 25-8, 25-10, for its third straight district championship.

Dunmore set up the championship match showdown of unbeaten league champions when it defeated Crestwood, 25-13, 20-25, 25-19, 25-20, in the semifinals.

Nicole Korgeski had 16 kills, two blocks and 14 service points in the win. Kimberly Dempsey added 20 assists and three aces. Colleen Carr had four kills, 16 points and six aces.

Playing on its home court, Dunmore lost the first game of the district tournament before rallying to beat Berwick, 19-25, 25-16, 25-13, 25-17, in the quarterfinal match.

MMI scored 13 of the match’s final 14 points Wednesday night to defeat Lackawanna Trail in the Class A final at Tunkhannock.

Lackawanna Trail rallied to win the third and fourth games and had a 5-2 lead in the final game before falling, 25-20, 25-15, 14-25, 22-25, 15-6.

Brone Lobichusky, a 6-foot senior middle hitter, led the Preppers to the first district champion by any team at the school since the 1973 boys’ basketball team that won a state championship.

“We’ve been working toward this for four years,” Lobichusky said. “Every game we played was for getting to districts.”

Lackawanna Trail defeated Forest City, 25-13, 25-23, 25-22, in the semifinals before MMI knocked off top-seeded host Mountain View, 25-20, 22-25, 25-22, 25-19.

Lackawanna Trail recovered from a 7-0 deficit in the third game to clinch the semifinal win.

Ashley Loss led Lackawanna Trail with five kills, six digs, 10 service points and five aces. Marissa Booth added four kills, two blocks and seven service points while Elizabeth Stuenzi had 11 assists, three kills and 10 service points.

FOOTBALL

Tyler Hughes kept piling up the most impressive passing numbers in District 2 October 30 when the junior quarterback led West Scranton to a 34-20 upset of Wallenpaupack.

Hughes went 25-for-41 passing for 318 yards and five touchdowns while carrying 15 times for 70 yards.

That made Hughes 73-for-113 (64.7 percent) for 1,205 yards with 16 touchdowns and no interceptions in his last four games. He also had 42 carries for 291 yards and two touchdowns in his last three games.

Ethan Dunn had his third straight six-catch game, giving him 43 receptions for 586 yards through eight games. Josh Schroeder had seven catches for the second time in three weeks, giving him 38 catches for 726 yards and nine touchdowns.

Carbondale used ball control to win the October 31 battle of teams that went in tied for second in Division 3 of the Lackawanna Football Conference.

The Chargers went 4-for-4 on fourth-down conversions in the last two drives, allowed Susquehanna to run just three plays in the final 13 minutes and finished with a 32:16-15:44 lead in time of possession in their 26-18 road victory.

Abington Heights had eight different players make at least one tackle for a loss in its 37-6 non-league win at Tunkhannock October 30.

Brian Morris went over the 1,000-yard mark in rushing for the season October 30 when Old Forge defeated Mid Valley, 28-6, to clinch at least a tie for the LFC Division 3 title.

FIELD HOCKEY

Katie Gabriele’s goal 19 seconds into overtime Monday lifted Coughlin over Lackawanna Trail, 1-0, in the District 2 Class AAA field hockey semifinals.

The loss ends Lackawanna Trail’s run as district champion. The Lady Lions went 8-6-1 in the Wyoming Valley Conference this season to earn the second seed and the semifinal home-field advantage.

Alyssa Monaghan stole a weak Lackawanna Trail hit to start the overtime and passed to Gabriele, who took advantage of the extra space afforded in 7-on-7 overtimes to dribble through the middle of the Trail defense before scoring on a reverse-stick shot.

“I was shocked,” Lackawanna Trail coach Sandy Spott said. “Right from the first pass, we made a mistake and that continued right down the field.”

Coughlin took advantage of its big hits throughout the game to consistently get the ball deep into Lackawanna Trail’s end of the field.

“We did not play well,” Spott said. “We have a very hard time playing the long ball.

“We don’t play well against that style. We couldn’t adjust. We couldn’t get shots off.”

Coughlin built a 15-2 lead in penalty corners, including 10-0 in the first half. The Crusaders, however, were only able to get off shots on four of those corners.

“We bobbled some,” Wood said, “but it was mostly their defense coming out so strong.”

Megan Gavin, Aliza Furneaux and Alyssa Mallory formed the Lackawanna Trail defense. Molly Van Duzer made 10 saves in goal.

After being outshot, 12-5, to that point, Lackawanna Trail had a 5-4 edge in shots over the final 10:28 of regulation.

Coughlin went on to win its fifth district title in six years with a 1-0 victory over Wyoming Valley West.

GIRLS’ TENNIS

District 3 champion Wyomissing eliminated District 2 champion Scranton Prep from the PIAA Class AA girls’ tennis team championships with a 4-1 victory at Hershey Racquet Club October 30.