Coudersport, Brockway Advance to D9 Class 1A Boys’ Soccer Title Game

DUBOIS, Pa. – Aristotle Smith wasn’t going to let Coudersport lose.

(Photo of Aristotle Smith of Coudersport)

Not this time. Not in his senior year.

After C-L scored two goals in a span of just over 3:30 in the second half to cut a three-goal Falcons lead to just one, Smith took over with a great individual effort driving down the middle of the field and beating Lions’ keeper Reece Geiger inside the left post to restore a multi-goal lead and help Coudersport to a 4-2 victory in the District 9 Class 1A semifinals Monday night at DuBois High School.

“They scored the goal, and I was like, I am not going to lose this game by senior year,” Smith said. “I just took it. They pushed me in the back and I just used that momentum. I was tripping, but I took one last push. I aimed and shot and I scored.”

Watch Smith’s full postgame interview.

Smith’s goal came early in the 71st minute and came just two minutes after Beau Verdill had gotten C-L within a tally when he put home a corner kick from Paul Leonhardt late in the 68th minute to give the Lions life.

“He (Smith) always has the potential to make a burst like that,” Coudersport head coach Erich Zaun said. “I have seen it a couple of times this season. But I have never seen anything quite like that run. That just picked everybody back up in the game. I am kind of speechless afterward.”

Smith was part of a three-goal first-half barrage that gave the Falcons a 3-0 halftime lead.

After Christian Furman opened the scoring later in the 13th minute, Smith scored midway through the 25th minute to give a Coudersport a 2-0 lead.

Shortly after Smith’s goal, the game was delayed approximately 45 minutes when one of the officials suffered a medical emergency that required him being transported to a nearby hospital by ambulance. An update on his condition wasn’t available at the end of the game.

When play resumed, Coudersport made it 3-0 with less than three minutes left in the half when Jonathan Barroquiero cut from his left to the middle of the field before firing a shot that went off the gloves of a leaping Geiger and then hit off the post and went in.

“Getting that momentum was important,” Zaun said. “That carried a lot into the second half. Having that lead kept our heads up and in the game and made sure we didn’t just quit when they scored those two goals.”

C-L fought itself make into the contest with a pair of tallies just past the midway point of the second half.

First, in the 65th minute Cody Whitling fired a shot that went just wide of the net, but Nate Megnin was there to collect the ball and beat Coudersport keeper Rosalyn Page to make it a 3-1 ball game.

Just shy of three-and-half minutes later, Verdill knocked in a corner kick from Paul Leonhardt to make it 3-2.

“We came out flat,” C-L head coach Don Montgomery said. “I don’t know. That was just it. In the second half, they are playing for their playoffs lives, and it showed. They had a lot of heart.”

Page was a big reason Coudersport won the game as she made a couple of top-notch saves in the first half, including a diving stop on a shot by Verdill early in the 27th minute.

“She is phenomenal,” Zaun said. “If you watch her through the season, she will make those saves routinely in a game. It’s just mind-boggling. She has a presence. She plays that position so well. She can read some of those shots. The way she dives. She lays out and lets everything go. It’s fun to watch.”

Page received high praise from Montgomery as well.

“That young lady was incredible,” Montgomery said. “I made a point to find her after the game and let her know how special a performance that was. You hate to have someone have a game like that against you, but, boy, that is something to watch if you really appreciate the game of soccer.”

Coudersport will take on Brockway, 3-2 winner over Elk County Catholic, in the championship game at 7 p.m. Thursday at a site to be announced.

BROCKWAY 3, ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 2

DUBOIS, Pa. – Getting goals from three different players and a huge first-half penalty kick stop by Lewis Painter, two-time defending champion Brockway advanced to the District 9 Class 1A title game for the fifth straight season with a 3-2 win over Elk County Catholic at DuBois.

Nolan Swanson and Linkin Nichols scored seven minutes apart in the first half to give the Rovers, who have been to the D9 title game in eight of the last nine seasons now, a 2-0 lead.

But it was a penalty kick stop by Painter midway through the 29th minute and just a minute-and-a-half before Nichols goal that may have proved the difference in the game.

Swanson had scored off a feed from Marcus Bennett to give Brockway a 1-0 lead late in the 23rd minute to give Brockway a 1-0 lead.

But the Rovers committed a foul in the box, and it looked like ECC would tie the game. But Painter came up with the big stop, and then Nichols scored with Eric Young getting the assist to make it 2-0.

Regis Wortman answered with a momentum-swinging goal with just 14 seconds left in the first half to get the Crusaders to within a tally, 2-1, at the break.

But Ryan Lin scored off a Bennett corner kick late in the 50th minute to make it 3-1 Brockway.

Isaac Brock answered back for ECC near the midpoint of the 65th minute to make it 3-2, but the Rovers held off the late charge to secure the victory.

Brockway will face Coudersport, a 4-2 winner over Clarion-Limestone, in the title game at 7 p.m. Thursday at a place to be announced.

NOTES – Brockway won District 9 Class 1A titles in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017 and 2018 and finished second in 2015 and 2016. In 2014, the Rovers lost to DuBois Central Catholic in the semifinals, the only time since 2011 they haven’t been to a championship game.