LEWISTOWN — A halftime talk made all the difference for the Mifflin County Huskies in a 2-1 non-league victory over Central Mountain on Saturday.

“At half, there was a stern talk on what we needed to do to take back parts of this match,” Huskies assistant coach Todd Peters said. “We had some people step up huge for us in taking back that middle. Jace Bagrosky, Bruce Baker, RJ Miller, Drake Gill brought it in the second-half middle, but especially Bryson Wagner with his air and ground play.”

And Zach Keller with his scoring touch. Mifflin County kept working hard to put the ball around the Wildcat cage. Finally, they were rewarded with 59 seconds to go with a finish by Keller in the chaos.

Trailing 1-0 in the first half, Mifflin County got the equalizer as Bruce Baker played a perfectly-placed corner kick that found the head of Chase Retherford, who hammered home a header. That tied the game at 1-1.

“The defense finished strong as a unit connected with Jack (Suydam) in goal,” Peters added. “Our whole team battled for all 80 minutes, and it was fantastic for us to see that full 80 reward.”

Mifflin County outshot the Wildcats 14-13 and held a 3-1 advantage in corners. Suydam finished with 13 stops.

The Huskies entertain Shippensburg on Tuesday.

In other boys soccer action on Saturday:

Guante lifts

Juniata to win

MIFFLINTOWN – Ricky Guante’s unassisted goal at the 28:29 mark of the first half proved to be the only goal of the game as Juniata edged Millersburg 1-0 in a Tri-Valley League contest.

Juniata outshot Millersburg 11-5 and also led 8-5 in corner kicks. Goalie Nolan Imes made 14 stops to record the shutout for Juniata.

Juniata hosts Susquenita on Wednesday.

CROSS COUNTRY

Three area schools

compete in Hershey

HERSHEY – The Mifflin County boys cross country team finished second in the boys AAA standings at the PIAA Foundation Meet in Hershey. The Huskies finished with 132 points, which was bested by only North Penn’s 78 points.

Rounding out the top five were Haverford Township (166), Council Rock South (199) and West Chester Henderson (220).

Individually, Carter Smith captured top honors with a time of 15:53.3, with Reese Cubbison 18th in 16:55.3; Hoyt Rodenbaugh, 22nd in 17:04.4; Max Zajac-Bargas, 45th in 17:30.0; Wyatt Kauffman, 46th in 17:32.7; Koy Aurand, 128th in 18:43.4; and Aidan Scavitti, 138th in 18:53.7.

“I’m really happy with our performance,” Huskies head coach Alex Monroe said. “There were 47 teams in the AAA race alone, and most we don’t see during the regular season. We knew North Penn was going to be difficult to beat, but we were in the conversation today and that’s all I really wanted out of it. It’s even more important that the boys saw the course and gained experience on it, because it won’t be the last time they race here.

“We are right on schedule with where I’d like them to be at this point in the season,” Monroe added. “A highlight for me was seeing Wyatt Kauffman return to this course healthy, after a very difficult injury at the state meet a year ago. He has been preparing for redemption all year.”

On the girls side, Mifflin County placed 34th in the 37-team field at the PIAA Foundation Meet. Ava Kratzer was the Huskies’ top finisher, placing 100th in 22:34.3.

Rounding out Mifflin County’s runners were Amilia Coffey, 115th in 22:48.0; Reagan Sheetz, 232nd in 28:21.4; Maya Morgan, 233rd in 28:25.0; Eden Smith, 235th in 28:43.1; Madison Baumgardner, 238th in 29:28.2; and Carys Morgan, 245th in 31:46.8.

“We prepared our athletes throughout the week and encouraged them to embrace the experience and not simply focus on their finish time,” Huskies head coach Neil Breneman said. “In cross country you can’t compare courses like apples to apples. They are all unique and have varying levels of difficulty. This one is a tough one.

“Despite the challenge, Ava Kratzer led the team and gained valuable insight into how to ‘dissect’ the course; likewise, Amilia Coffey was close behind her,” Breneman added. “They both had strong kicks at the end of the race and passed numerous runners going into the home stretch.”

Norwin won the team title with 45 points, with Owen J. Roberts (141), North Allegheny (157), Hershey (174) and Manheim Township (205) rounding out the top five.

“It was the most challenging course they faced this season, but it gave the team a great opportunity to gain experience on the course,” Breneman said. “The course is filled with rolling hills that challenge athletes both physically and mentally. It always has a very fast start since this race draws many elite runners from across the state.”

Mifflin County hits the road Tuesday to Harrisburg to race against Central Dauphin and Central Dauphin East.

In the boys AA race, Midd-West placed 24th and Juniata 26th out of 30 teams. Grant Boop led the Mustangs in 43rd place with a 18:20.4, while the rest of the top seven had: Lycoln Hoffman, 80th in 19:19.2; Ian Hall, 141st in 20:33.3; Lane Yount, 147th in 20:47.8; Wyatt Sherman, 160th in 21:28.2; Gavin Gelnett, 179th in 22:31.0; and Ben DeLong, 187th in 23:25.8.

For Juniata, Josiah Barner was the Indians’ top finisher in 92nd in 19:30.0, with Kaedmon Wagner, 108th in 19:50.8; Coy Kerstetter, 115th in 19:55.9; David Mayall-Marker, 135th in 20:27.2; Joel Hardin, 152nd in 20:59.1; Luke Weiand, 185th in 23:01.5; and John Randolph, 204th in 26:08.9.

“Overall I thought the boys ran well on this very difficult course,” Juniata head coach Jeff Miller said. “David and Joel shaved several minutes off their time from last year on this course. John and Luke gained some experience today running this course for the very first time. I’ve had some really good runners take three or four times on this course to figure out how to race it.”

In the girls AA race, Midd-West finished 22nd out of 28 teams, while Juniata did not have enough runners to compete as a team.

The Mustangs’ Ashlyn Hoffman crossed the line in 78th in 24:01.2, with Evelyn Weiser, 101st in 24:53.2; Mallory Heimbach, 106th in 25:00.2; Mia Stotz, 120th in 25:53.4; Tanzania Seibel, 128th in 26:05.4; Kylie Shaffer, 163rd in 29:55.4; and Zoey Williams, 174th in 32:12.3.

Juniata had two runners compete at Selena Mayall-Marker ran 171st in 28:03.5 and Ella Zimmerman placed 179th in 28:38.9.

“I thought Selena and Ella ran well on the Hershey course considering it was their first time on this difficult course,” Miller added. “Selena has been impressing me with making sure she gets a good enough warmup and cool down before and after races. It’s part of the sport and shows a coach how committed a runner is to get better.”