It's been quite the season for Towanda boys golf and the fact that it's still going, both as a team and individually, as fall colors near peak season is quite something.

On Tuesday the Knights competed against defending state champions, Scranton Prep, and lost by just two in the sub-regional, 313-315, at Fox Hill.

However, they found out on Wednesday that the team will be competing at the PIAA Golf Championships through an at-large bid, so the Knights will be spending half the week next week at Penn State.

"I couldn't be more excited for them," Towanda coach Paul Lantz said. "As a group, to lose by two is really tough, and it's one of those things that, sometimes you lose by 20 it's better. When you lose by two it's heartbreaking because then you nitpick everything you do all day in a round. So for them, when I got the news today that we're in at large, that was super exciting."

Boom Thompson shot 74 to lead Towanda, with Owen Savercool carding a 75, Graham Welles scoring a 78, and Deegan Blumenauer getting an 88 to round out the scorers.

Harper Welles shot 89, with Jason Wickwire scoring a 91.

"It was a crazy feeling," Graham Welles said about going up against Scranton Prep. "We knew coming in that we had nothing to lose because Scranton Prep is always so good at golf."

Last year the Knights lost to Scranton Prep at Williamsport Country Club in the sub-regional, but by a much larger margin.

"It's another day to show how good we are comported to everyone else in our state," said Thompson. "And how we deserve to be in, even though we lost it."

The team competition is on Wednesday down at Penn State.

Individually, Boom and Graham will be a Penn State Monday and Tuesday for the individual PIAA Championships.

"It feels great," Thompson said about going back to states. "It's what we wanted to at the beginning of the year, and it feels good that we did that."

Thompson ultimately came in third at districts, but was battling for the district title throughout the day.

"I wanted to win," said Thompson. "I didn't want to get third, but I just played my game and it wasn't enough this year, but hopefully next year I'll be up there."

Thompson is once again dual sporting with cross-country, another team that has ambitions of going to states.

"It's a lot," he said. "But it's what we want, it's what we work for everyday. I have to laude both coaches, allowing me to do both, and moving golf practice at 5 o'clock just so I can go to cross-country. It's really nice that everyone's on board with it."

Last Saturday was a little more nerve-racking for Graham as he came into the day on the outside looking in.

"I knew the scores were going to be worse at Williamsport," he said. "I knew I just needed to make pars. I ended up moving up quite a bit towards the end of the day."

He got three birdies on the back nine, and ate up the final three holes at Williamsport - holes that routinely trip up the best in the district.

"I was kind of watching the leaderboard," said Graham. "My dad told me I needed to a certain amount of hundreds these last few to even get a shot of getting in. It was unreal, I had a close one on 17, and then ended up making birdie on 18, which was huge."

Lantz believes their experience last year will help them this year.

"I couldn't be more excited for those guys," Lantz said. "They worked really hard. At this point they earned their way through by getting through districts again, and it's just really exciting."