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Central Mountain Sports Week In Review (September 18th-23rd)

Central Mountain High School sophomore Natalie Brown returns a shot in her doubles match against Jersey Shore High School on Tuesday at Central Mountain in Mill Hall. (The Express/Scott Baker)

A PHAC championship in golf and a 4-0 record in girl’s tennis. Those were the highlights for CM sports last week. Aside from the solid week put in by the golf and tennis teams, the week was not one of the best. Volleyball, boys soccer and football each had a rough go of it last week while the girl’s soccer team salvaged a decent week with two wins on Saturday. The cross-country teams struggled as well but did come away with a bit of individual success. So with all that said, my choice for last week’s top team goes to…well, it’s again a tie and again it’s the golf and tennis teams.

As I reported last week, John Lodek’s golf team clinched the PHAC championship when they went a perfect 4-0 at White Deer to defeat their opponents including Selinsgrove, their nearest conference competitor for the crown. Other than that event, the team was off to take a whole lot of practice swings at Clinton Country Club for the remainder of the week. The team will be back in action this week with two non-conference meets before participating in sectionals.

Pete Wert’s Lady Wildcat tennis team was very busy last week. They had matches everyday from Monday through Thursday. However, they rose to the challenge and finished the week a perfect 4-0 while recording several big wins including over Williamsport and Jersey Shore. The win over Williamsport was huge as it was a revenge match due to the Millionaires’ 3 -2 win over the Lady Cats earlier in the year. This past Monday however, the Lady Cats turned the tables with a 4-1 win. With the perfect week, the Lady Cats are now tied for first place in the PHAC Division I with Williamsport. This week is another busy one for the ladies as they travel to Jersey Shore, Selinsgrove and Danville before returning home on Thursday for a non-league affair with a powerful Hollidaysburg team. The Lady Cats as a team boast a record of 10-2 overall (10-1 PHAC). Individually, outstanding seasons are being put together by Jolee McCluskey at 11-1, sister Kendall 11-1 and Katherine Strouse 10-2. The No. 1 doubles team has been very solid as well with an 11-1 overall record. Sophomore Natalie Brown has been the leader of that doubles pair.

The cross-country team was in action on Tuesday at Bloomsburg with Warrior Run joining in. Both the boys and girls teams dropped Bloomsburg in that one while being bested by Warrior Run. The highlight of that event was the individual performance of Alyssa Laughner who ran the fastet time of 24 girls overall. The runners were also in action on Saturday at the PIAA Foundation XC Invitational in Hershey. Top performers for CM were Laughner in 29th place out of 281 runners on the girls side and on the boys side Corbin Green was 79th out of 266 total runners. Coach Terrence Green’s teams will be back in action this week on Tuesday at Jersey Shore with Mifflinburg and Mount Carmel joining in.

In boys soccer, Jeff Brinker’s team met Jersey Shore at Malinak Stadium on Tuesday. The rivals battled each other into two overtimes before settling for a 1-1 tie. The guys were back in action again on Thursday as they hosted perennial power Lewisburg. Lewisburg left Malinak with a hard fought 3-0 victory over the Cats in that one. Coach Brinker assessed the week by saying, “the boys had a good week. It started off with a hard fought game with Jersey Shore and the boys came out with a 1-1 draw. The second game was against two-time defending PIAA state title champions. We had a great chance to tie the score up at 1-1 with 11 minutes to go but just missed wide. The boys held them to one goal for 75 minutes before giving up two goals in the remaining minutes. They worked hard and played really good at times. If we can get this for 80, this team will be creating great opportunities for wins as the season progresses.”

Brinker’s boys now with a record of 3-4-1 will welcome Hollidaysburg on Tuesday and Williamsport on Thursday for two tough match-ups against good teams. However, the veteran coach assures, “the boys will be ready and are looking forward to the challenge.”

On the girls side, Coach Cole Black’s team took on a solid Midd-West team at home on Wednesday. The Lady Cats lack of offense continued to show as they dropped to a 4-0 decision to the Lady Mustangs. The shut-out for Black’s girls marked the third consecutive game that they were unable to find the back of the net. The Ladies were back in action at BEA on Saturday where they took on Mo Valley and BEA. Against Mo Valley, they came away with a fairly easy win by a 7-0 score. Then, against the home school Bald Eagle Area Eagles, the Lady Cats registered their second win of the day with a hard fought 3-0 win. CM got some diversity on offense for the first time this season with multiple players finding the back of the net. Coach Black’s team is now set to host Williamsport and Selinsgrove this week at Malinak Stadium before hitting the road on Saturday for a match-up with Mifflinburg. Coach Black commented on the week ahead, “We go into next week against Williamsport, Selinsgrove, and Mifflinburg. We’ve grown a lot since the beginning of the season and have learned a couple of things. Our upper classmen have grown into the new coaching philosophy and have got a good handle on what we expect of them. We expect the juniors and seniors to lead the varsity team and get a majority of the minutes. What’s great though is the freshmen talent we’ve been able to rely on as well. I’m optimistic about our positive, uphill swing.”

Megan Ulsamer’s volleyball squad had a rough week by losing contests on the road at Wellsboro and at home to Hollidaysburg. Coach Ulsamer said of her team’s tough week, “another tough week for CM Volleyball with losses against Wellsboro and Hollidaysburg. We played well against both teams, we just couldn’t finish.” On Saturday at the West Branch tournament, their struggles continued. The Lady Cats will be in action this week on Monday at Bellefonte and on Thursday at Shamokin as they look to break their five match losing streak.

Friday night was the mid-way point of the 2017 football season and it saw the Wildcats taking on the Clearfield Bison. The Cats battled early but the Bison passing attack was just too much to handle and the visitors headed back out west on I-80 with a convincing 42-10 win. One of the few bright spots for the Wildcats was a long 2nd quarter touchdown run by sophomore Rocco Stark. The loss drops CM to 0-5 on the season with a trip to Mifflinburg next week in what is a very winnable game. Mifflinburg likely feels the same way heading into Friday night. While I’ve avoided predictions up to this point, I’m going out on a limb for this one and guarantee a Wildcat victory. CM or Mifflinburg that is. Hopefully CM. Fortunately for me, both team’s mascots are Wildcats. I do expect a very competitive game.

Enjoy this week’s games and matches.

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