NTL GIRLS' SOCCER: WYALUSING LOOKING FOR OTHERS TO STEP UP IN 2024 (2024-08-20)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
Wyalusing girls’ soccer enters a new era. Olivia Haley, their generational player and the program’s all-time leading scorer, has graduated, but she leaves behind a thriving program that brings back nine of 11 starters.

“Obviously, Liv and Mia will be hard to replace but we have a good group of girls this year,” said coach Gary Haley. “We’ve got a good freshman class coming up, not necessarily real experienced in terms of playing travel ball, but I think there’s six or seven of them, and they’re hard workers, they’re aggressive, they’re athletic, so it’s just a matter of time.”

It’ll be tough replacing Haley’s goal scoring, but the players feel they can do it as a group.

“We’re definitely going to miss her a lot because no one can really replace a player like that,” said Chloe Bennett. “But it’ll be a good season because I think everyone’s ready to step up, like Addy (Bly) and Kenzie (Kintner), we can try to generate more goals through more people.”

Haley is going to have them focus on more of a possession game this year instead of simply trying to feed the ball to Olivia as much as they could.

“We’re experimenting a little bit with having an attacking midfielder,” he said. “We’ve got some talent at the midfield, so we’re kind of experimenting a little bit with what we can do with one of our midfielders, to get them a little bit more involved in the scoring.”

One area they know they don’t have to worry about is on defense. They return their entire backline and keeper from a year ago.

“I feel good about it because we’ve always been good since I’ve been a freshman,” said center back Annamary Slocum. “To have them back means that we’re going to be strong, because we were on eo the strongest in the league last year.”

Being battle tested doesn’t mean they don’t get a little scared sometimes when they face off with the better scorers in the league.

“It hurts when you get slammed by like a Camille McRoberts from all the way out there, but I like it,” Slocum said. “It gives me a little bit of pressure to perform.”

Behind her is keeper Sophia Alvarez, who’s been manning the goal-line since she was a sophomore.

“We have some girls that I’ve played with for quite a long time, and we’ve got a really tight knit group, which makes us special,” Alvarez said.

In fact, she thinks team’s might be sleeping this season.

“I feel like a lot of people just see the front line, and assume that’s what’s carrying our team,” remarked Alvarez. “But there’s so much more going on in the back, and in the middle.”

Wyalusing had their best season in terms of wins/losses last year, and won a district match for the second year in a row. Haley, though, wants them to keep pushing.

“It’s nice having your best record, it’s nice winning a playoff game, but it’s also really nice to be able to hang a banner, and we haven’t quite been able to do that,” he said. “We want to get back in the playoffs, and we want to make a little bit of noise, but hopefully we have a shot at the league.”

ROSTER

Vayda Rought

Morgan Broschart

Callee Warner

Addisyn Bly

Alysha Botts

Annamary Slocum

Bella Clark

Avalon Reed

Carol Scarborough

Sophia Alvarez

Storey Newell

Chloe Bennett

Sierra Gromley

Ellie Adams

Savanna Gromley

Emily Fowler

Neigha Dewitt

Treanna Nickeson

Aleta O’Connor

Katelynn Trowbridge

Alyssa Carter

Makenzie Kintner

SCHEDULE

Aug. 23 vs CMVT at Meadowbrook Tournament, 5:15 p.m.

Aug. 24 at Meadowbrook Tournament

Aug. 27 at NPM, 4 p.m.

Aug. 29 at NEB, 4 p.m.

Aug. 31 vs Elk Lake, 10 a.m.

Sep. 4 vs Towanda, 4 p.m.

Sep. 7 vs Troy, 10 a.m.

Sep. 11 vs Williamson, 4 p.m.

Sep. 14 at Tunkhannock, 11 a.m.

Sep. 17 vs Athens, 4 p.m.

Sep. 19 at Wellsboro, 5:30 p.m.

Sep. 24 at Athens, 5:30 p.m.

Sep. 26 at Williamson, 4 p.m.

Oct. 1 vs NEB, 4 p.m.

Oct. 3 vs Wellsboro, 4 p.m.

Oct. 7 at Sullivan County, 4 p.m.

Oct. 9 at Troy, 4 p.m.

Oct. 12 vs Holy Cross, 11 a.m.

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