JOHNSTOWN —
Chestnut Ridge is courting a new conference relationship for football.
In late September, the Ridge school board voted unanimously to give Lions Athletic Director Mark Clevenger the green light to send a letter of application to the Mountain League for football only, beginning in 2014.
The Lions, currently playing as an independent, have been all over the map, literally, in order to fill out their football schedule.
The squad has been operating without a football league affiliation since the Inter-County Conference realigned without including the Lions in 2008.
The school had been a member of the Mountain Athletic Conference, but withdrew without ever playing a game.
That situation resulted in Clevenger filling out the Ridge schedule with trips to Reading, Wingate, Kutztown and Maryland this season.
They are currently touting a 3-3 mark and have already lost road games to Berks Catholic (47-0) and Bald Eagle (28-26).
The Lions picked up their first road win Friday with their 34-0 shutout at Mountain Ridge, Md., and have road trips to Kutztown and Fort Hill, Md., the next two weeks.
Chestnut Ridge, a Class AA school, appeared to be ready to rejoin the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference last year, but the LHAC requires an even number of members and there was no other school to join with the Lions.
Prior to this season, Chestnut Ridge was affiliated with the WestPAC, filling in on many of that leagues extra spots. But the new alliance between the WestPAC and the Heritage Conference filling each others’ empty slots left the Lions once again out in the cold.
This year, the Lions faced seven new opponents, quite a challenge for any team and coaching staff.
Should Ridge be accepted into the Mountain League, it would be the ninth member, and its longest trips would be to Clearfield and Penns Valley in Spring Mills (Centre County).
The other members of the conference include Bald Eagle Area, Philipsburg-Osceola, which lost to Ridge earlier this season, Tyrone, Huntingdon, Bellefonte and Central, which beat the Lions in the season opener.
The Lions will find out their fate after the league’s next meeting, which is not until Nov. 7.
q q q
Kicks for Kostan: Senior Briana Kostan became the second Forest Hills player this season to hit 100 goals on the soccer field.
Kostan reached the lofty standard Wednesday night in a 4-0 victory over Cambria Heights.
Teammate Casey Gallaher also topped the century mark earlier this season.
It’s a relatively rare accomplishment when two players hit scoring milestones of that magnitude in the same season, but also explains why the Rangers are 12-0-1 overall and 11-0-1 in the Laurel Highlands and sitting atop the standings.
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