The Class 1A West Region I soccer playoffs begin Wednesday with a trio of local quarterfinal matches.
The fourth-seeded Mountain Ridge boys host No. 5 Southern at 7 p.m. in the lone first-round boys match. The gates will open at 5:45 p.m.
The Northern girls won a coin flip with Southern for the No. 3 seed and will welcome No. 6 Clear Spring at 6 p.m. The Rams host No. 5 Fort Hill at the same time.
The cost of admission will be $6 for everyone 7 years of age and older. Only the Maryland State Coaches passes will be accepted.
Boys Bracket
Mountain Ridge (6-6-2, 3-2-1 Western Maryland Athletic Conference) beat Southern (5-8, 0-6 WestMAC) twice during the regular season, 2-0 in Frostburg on Sept. 20 and 2-1 in Oakland on Oct. 10.
The Miners are averaging 2.4 goals per game and allowing two per game, while Southern scores 2.8 and allows 2.7.
Trent Diamond, John Delaney and Austin Simpson are Mountain Ridge’s leading scorers. Diamond has eight goals and two assists, Simpson adds six goals and two assists, and Delaney has five goals and five assists.
Southern’s Shane Sisler has eight goals and 10 assists for a team-high 26 points, and Charlie Buchanan adds 10 goals and four assists for 24 points.
The winner of that match will head to top-seeded Fort Hill (12-2, 4-2 WestMAC) in the region semis on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Greenway Avenue Stadium.
That match will be the third installment of a triple-header featuring a girls playoff match at 11 a.m. and two boys bouts.
The Sentinels have won 11 straight games and finished the regular season as the area’s No. 1 team in the local sportswriter poll.
No. 2 Allegany (10-2-2), the WestMAC champion with a 4-1-1 record, hosts No. 3 Clear Spring (8-5) in the other region semifinal on Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Blazers fell in the Central Maryland Conference small-schools championship game to Williamsport, 4-0, Monday.
Mountain Ridge is the defending region champion, falling in the state semifinals. Allegany won the prior three region crowns, ending as state runner-up in 2023 and a semifinalist the previous two campaigns.
Fort Hill is searching for its first region championship since 2016 when it fell in the state semis.
Girls Bracket
The Northern girls (9-5, 3-5 WestMAC) are the reigning region champion and advanced to the state semifinals for the first time since 2007.
Northern played Clear Spring (3-11) once during the regular season, routing the Blazers, 6-0, on Sept. 6 in Accident.
Northern, which averages 4.1 goals per game and allows 1.7, boasts a pair of 50-point scorers in Abby Nelson and Ainsley McHenry-Sorber. Nelson has 24 goals and four assists for 52 points, and McHenry-Sorber has garnered 18 goals and 15 assists for 51 points.
McHenry-Sorber, a junior, has moved into third all-time in assists with 49, behind only Northern’s Adria Graham (68) and Mountain Ridge’s Sydney Snyder (57).
No. 4 Southern (8-5-1, 3-5 WestMAC) beat No. 5 Fort Hill (5-9, 0-8 WestMAC) twice during the season, winning 5-1 in Oakland (Sept. 17) and 5-1 in Cumberland (Oct. 8).
Southern averages 3.4 goals a game and allows 1.7 compared to 2.3 scored and 4.2 surrendered by Fort Hill.
Jayden Weaver leads the Rams with 25 points, scoring 10 goals and assisting on five more. Sydney Scott has nine goals and two assists, Emily Sweitzer adds eight goals and eight assists, and Reeslyn Sisler and Norah Musselman have dished out six assists apiece.
Fort Hill’s Sadie Hamilton will be the highest scorer on the field with 28 points on 10 goals and eight assists. Allie Hipp has scored eight goals and Kylee Rice has six with four assists.
Top-seeded Allegany (12-0-2, 7-0-1 WestMAC), the area’s No. 1 team and the WestMAC champion, will host the winner of Southern and Fort Hill in the region semis on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Greenway Avenue Stadium.
Second-seeded Mountain Ridge (11-2-1, 6-1-1 WestMAC) welcomes the winner of Northern and Clear Spring in the region semis on Friday or Saturday at a time to-be-announced.