Expand<\/a><\/p>\nAbington Heights has plenty of players who light up the stat sheet.<\/p>\n
Joey Pivirotto, a 2024 Times-Tribune All-Region selection who compiled 42 goals and 12 assists, and Nico Bustos, the reigning Times-Tribune Player of the Year who racked up 26 goals and 18 assists, are the Comets\u2019 stars who also produced star performances in the state playoffs.<\/p>\n
Jack Leuthe, Lucas Samala, Wes Illian and Billy Johnson orchestrated big-time moments, with Leuthe scoring two goals and dishing out two assists in Abington Heights\u2019 PIAA first-round victory, Samala and Illian assisting Bustos\u2019 game-winning goals in the quarterfinals and semifinals and Johnson securing 10 saves in the semifinals for his 17th clean sheet.<\/p>\n
What makes this team great is everyone plays his role. While Connor McDonald\u2019s name doesn\u2019t often show up in the box score, he leaves his mark on every game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been someone I think that\u2019s kind of flown under the radar, especially on the stats front, but I think everybody within the team, players and coaches, understand just how valuable he is to our team and our playing style and identity and how much he contributes for sure,\u201d Abington Heights coach Frank Dyska said.<\/p>\n
The junior midfielder connects the offense to the defense, keeping the team together as one unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d almost consider myself kind of like a glue guy, just doing whatever, keeping everybody calm and then just helping, talking to everybody individually and just keeping the game as calm as possible,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n
McDonald reads the game like a chess board, anticipating the next move, putting himself in the right spot and setting up his teammates. The Comets compiled 132 goals and 102 assists this season. Only one team, Lewisburg who will play for a Class 2A state title Friday, held Abington Heights scoreless. The box score shows goals and assists, but so much more goes into those points. That\u2019s where McDonald comes in.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn offense, he\u2019s somebody that\u2019s involved in the build up a lot, getting the ball forward, switching it from side to side, finding some players in good attacking positions up the field,\u201d Dyska said. \u201cHe\u2019s a connecting piece in our passing game all around.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also makes an impact on defense, as the Comets allowed just nine goals this season and secured 17 shutouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefensively, he\u2019s been great at kind of reading how each game is going and how teams are attacking and just putting himself in a position defensively to have the best impact on shutting down the other team,\u201d Dyska said. \u201cHe\u2019s all-around offensively and defensively. He has such a good knack for reading the game and adjusting game to game on what we need from him.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald has six assists this season, but he doesn\u2019t need the recognition on the stat sheet. He enjoys his role, and only cares about the number 23 \u2014 Abington Heights\u2019 win total.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t bother me at all,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cI love it. It builds my relationship with the team better.\u201d<\/p>\n
That includes his relationship with Bustos and Illian in the midfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great. (Nico and I) get on each other quite a bit, but I think that\u2019s also what helps get a better connection,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cAlso, I will shout out Wes Illian. He\u2019s a freshman this year. He\u2019s done a phenomenal job helping connect that third midfielder and it\u2019s just been great in the midfield this year with Nico and Wes.\u201d<\/p>\n
As team captain and an all-state player, Bustos needs to put himself in the play, as McDonald and Illian adjust accordingly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to push up, I like to drop back sometimes, and I\u2019ve told him, I\u2019ve even told Wes Illian, to kind of sometimes just work off of me, work off of what I do because I can benefit the team attacking and defensive, so they cover me,\u201d Bustos said. \u201cIf I need to drop back a bit more, they\u2019ll push up the field higher and they adapt to every way that any other team plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald started playing soccer at an early age, joining youth leagues and playing under Dyska at Abington Youth Soccer and its travel team. Besides playing at the school, he plays for Anthracite Football Club, which is run out of Riverfront.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been playing since probably I was able to walk,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cI\u2019ve played my entire life, and I just love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Saturday, he\u2019ll play for a state title, as District 2 champion Abington Heights will face District 3 champion Conrad Weiser at 10 a.m. at Northeastern High School in Manchester.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. My freshman year, I never would have thought we\u2019d be playing for a state final,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cThis group of guys is just phenomenal. I love every single one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have great individual players, but it almost feels like a family and nobody wants this season to end, so I think every time we go into a game, we might be an underdog, but I think it\u2019s just the grit and determination that we want this season to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a big part of that family, whether he shows up in the box score or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to show what he does on a stat sheet,\u201d Bustos said. \u201cYou have to watch him play to understand what he does, what he brings to the team, what he brings onto the field. He\u2019s an incredible player to have in the midfield.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abington Heights\u2019 Connor McDonald takes control of the ball during the soccer game at Scranton Prep on Thursday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-33888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-high-school-sports","9":"tag-scranton","10":"tag-scranton-headlines","11":"tag-scranton-news","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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