Hill becomes all-time scoring leader in loss to Athens

By: Ed Weaver  /  October 4, 2016

Senior Josiah Hill became Wellsboro's new all-time scoring leader in a 4-2 loss to Athens on Monday, October 3.

Coming into Monday's game, Hill had a boys soccer program record of 81 career goals, one shy of Alexis Getty's mark of 82. Athens scored two first half goals, the first coming three minutes into the contest on a goal by Brad Cardona and assisted by Ethan Lane to put the Wildcats up 1-0. Athens' Shane Colegrove put the visiting Wildcats up 2-0 with 26:08 remaining in the first half off an assist by Gavin Stein.

Athens would take a 3-0 lead early in the second half as Cardona scored his second goal on an assist from Colegrove. Wellsboro would eventually rebound late in the half as Hill scored with 12:57 remaining on an assist from sophomore Holden Kennedy to make the score 3-1. Colegrove made it 4-1 Wildcats with 6:44 remaining on a direct kick before Hill scored his record-breaking goal off an assist from senior Jacob Singer with 5:01 left in the game to make it 4-2.

"Even though the result was disappointing I'm happy with how the guys played," said head coach John Shaffer. "I challenged my boys to go at Athens and test ourselves to see how good we are. Even when we've beaten Athens in the past we would've parked the bus and hoped to just win 1-0. Tonight the team took chances. If we clean up the mistakes and don't let teams score in the first 5 minutes of each half we will be competitive in Districts."

The Wildcats took 21 shots on goal compared to Wellsboro's 9 and edged the Hornets 11-2 in corner kicks. Senior Casey Hoover made 11 saves in goal.

In the JV game, the Hornets lost to Athens 2-1. Senior Alex Freeman scored Wellsboro's goal.

The Varsity loss snapped the Hornets' 9-game win streak, dropping them to 9-4 (7-3 NTL) on the year. The team will be back in action on Wednesday, October 5 against Troy.