Penn Hills boys soccer ready to climb into playoff contention

By: Josh Rizzo
Sunday, September 10, 2023 | 11:01 AM

The Penn Hills boys soccer program is used to having to dig out of holes.

Two years ago, the Indians had to surge down the back half of the section schedule to break a 17-year postseason drought and make the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs. This year, Penn Hills jumped in Section 4-3A play to start the season, getting off to a 1-2 start and will have to chase the pack to make the playoffs again.

The Indians have a group that won’t be intimidated by the climb. Penn Hills has 15 seniors.

Senior goalie Landon Hankey, who is being recruited by Gannon, Penn State Behrend and Pitt Greensburg, said the Indians know how to refocus.

“We just want to do the same thing we did that year,” said Hankey, who has also talked to Cleveland State and Robert Morris. “We just changed the motivation and the speed of practice.”

This is the second consecutive year Penn Hills has opened the season without any nonsection games. Indians coach Ryan Hankey wishes the early season schedule was structured a little differently.

Hankey also said that he isn’t a fan of early season tournaments, especially with a limited roster. While Penn Hills has a larger roster this year, an injury in a tournament in previous years would have set the team back.

“We have two nonsection games, the last two games of the season,” Ryan Hankey said. “I wish we could play those at the beginning of the season. We wanted to get harder scrimmages, but couldn’t get the games we wanted. I’m not a fan of the tournaments.”

The Indians will get a boost when Connor Lehman returns from injury. Travis Korotko, Ari Silverman, Jeremy Safran and Karlens Joseph are other seniors who contribute with Penn Hills.

The Indians opened the season with a 5-2 loss to Gateway. Penn Hills bounced back with a 5-0 win over McKeesport. Luke Hoolahan scored a hat trick for the Indians against the Tigers. Micah Beckley and Mack Byrnes also scored for the Indians.

Penn Hills also dropped a game 3-0 to Latrobe.

“We’re not like Plum or Franklin that have a ton of players who play soccer all year long,” Hankey said. “My team, I have three kids who play year-round. I’ve really tried to get them playing in the offseason and we practice at least once a week. We play in tournaments in the winter. The guys wanted to start in June this year and we’ve been practicing three times a week.”

Landon Hankey, who has been a two-time all-section selection, has been working on trying to grow into his role as a senior leader. Josh Shifflet and Anthony Foglia are both seniors who have contributed on defense.

“I’ve been working on talking with my teammates,” Landon said. “I’m very comfortable with those guys. They are all in my grade and we’ve been playing together forever.”

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