NEPA Sports Nation

BOYS SOCCER ROUNDUP: Defending champs all advance

The defending District 2 boys soccer champions came in with seeds ranging from third through sixth in their respective tournaments, but all four advanced, even two that had to go on the road Monday to beat higher seeds in order to get through the quarterfinal round.

Sixth-seeded Mountain View got past Elk Lake, 2-1, in Class A while fifth-seeded Delaware Valley continued its late-season surge with a 2-0 win at Wyoming Valley West in Class 3A.

Third-seeds Crestwood, in Class 3A, and Wyoming Seminary, in Class 2A, joined them in advancing to Wednesday’s semifinals. Crestwood edged Dallas, 3-1, while Wyoming Seminary handled Lake-Lehman, 6-1.

Joey Heller and Hunter Kozloski scored the goals for Mountain View.

Delaware Valley broke a scoreless, halftime tie to win on goals by Bryce Carney and Chad Fallen in the final 2:48.

Lucas Pauley had three saves in the shutout for the Warriors, who are 6-3 since winning just once in their first 10 games.

Crestwood and Dallas were also scoreless at halftime, but they got the scoring started sooner when Ben Rossi connected on a penalty kick for the Comets.

Lars Stephenson and Conner Herron also scored as Crestwood, the four-time defending champion, avenged two of its three losses this season.

Wyoming Seminary freshman Matt Swartz scored four goals, including a natural hat trick in response to Lake-Lehman’s Cole Kaiser scoring the first goal 10:40 into the game.

Swartz scored twice on assists from Thomas Iskra 2:31 apart for a 2-1 lead by the midway point in the first half.

Swartz opened the second-half scoring on an assist from Owen Rowlands, then returned the favor, setting up Rowlands for a 4-1 lead. Swartz then got a third assist from Iskra before Xavier Flory scored the final goal off a Louis Michaels assist.

Wallenpaupack and Old Forge were the other teams to win on the road.

The Buckhorns and Blue Devils also matched Crestwood in avenging a pair of regular-season losses.

Wallenpaupack, the seventh seed, took out second-seeded Valley View, 2-0, in Class 3A.

Old Forge needed penalty kicks after its 2-2 tie with Riverside could not be broken in two overtimes. The Blue Devils won the shootout, 3-2, to advance.

The three top seeds that played all rolled to victories.

Ron Prislupski scored six goals, including the 100th of his career, while Andrew Smith added three goals and three assists as Holy Cross routed MMI Prep, 11-0.

Wyoming Area defeated Western Wayne, 5-1, in Class 2A with the help of a Kendall Heck hat trick.

North Pocono was already in control of its Class 3A game with West Scranton when it scored with 29 seconds left in the first half and 17 seconds into the second half on the way to a 14-0 victory.

The Trojans opened an 8-0 lead with three goals in the first 3:48 after halftime and wound up with nine second-half goals.

Zach Evans started the scoring and finished with three goals and an assist.

Eliot Bowen scored the goal in the closing seconds of the half to get him started toward the Trojans’ other hat trick.

Will Pickarski had two goals and an assist while Max Gentile and Alex Pagotto also scored twice.

Cayden Lougee scored one goal and assisted another. Jonah Yurkanin and Corbin Lankford each had two assists.

The Trojans held West Scranton to one shot, which was not on goal, and did not allow a corner kick.

Elsewhere: Wilkes-Barre Area downed Scranton, 3-1, in Class 4A; Abington Heights shut out Tunkhannock, 2-0, in Class 3A; Holy Redeemer defeated Lakeland and Dunmore topped Scranton Prep by 4-1 scores in Class 2A; and Blue Ridge defeated Gregory the Great Academy, 3-1, in Class A.

Aidan McFarlane scored the game’s first goal and assisted Brody Walker on the last in Wilkes-Barre Area’s victory.

Evan Corcoran’s penalty kick broke a 1-1 halftime tie.

Merci Kitungano scored and Luke Pikulski made 11 saves for Scranton.

Yoshi Matsui scored the first goal then assisted freshman Michael Maldonado to give Abington Heights a 2-0 halftime lead.

Philip Sykes had a four-save shutout to stop the 11-win Tigers.

Colin Whitman’s hat trick led the way for Holy Redeemer.

John Kuderka scored on a penalty kick and Tyler Tarnalicki made nine saves.

Owen Morgan scored a late goal for Lakeland, which got 19 saves from Ryan Lidy.

Tommy Clark and Maynor Castro-Lemus scored goals each for Dunmore.

Gerald Welsted and Connor Cranage scored in the first 12 minutes for a 2-0 Blue Ridge halftime lead in the game at Keystone College.

Carson Gallagher also scored for the Raiders.

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