CENTRAL NEW YORK – For most of the fall the West Genesee girls soccer team understood that it was East Syracuse Minoa which stood between them and repeating as Section III Class AA champions.
This dream match-up happened Saturday night in the sectional final at SUNY-Cortland, and the Wildcats were mostly up to the immense challenge – yet could not repeat what it accomplished when it beat the Spartans for the title one year ago.
ESM prevailed 1-0, finally earning a sectional crown after three consecutive defeats in sectional finals from 2021 to 2023 – the one to WG and two against New Hartford the previous two seasons.
Neither side had much trouble with their respective semifinals last Wednesday at Nottingham, where before ESM routed Fulton 7-0 and WG took apart Whitesboro in a 3-0 decision.
Up 1-0 at the break, the Wildcats got away in the late going with a relentless push that ultimately produced 17 shots on Whitesboro’s net while only allowing four.
Addison Kensey led the way, scoring twice. Anna Nelson assisted on one of those goals and converted the other, with Maria Snyder and Bella Togias also earning assists.
Going in to the final, all eyes were on how the Wildcats’ defense would try and contain ESM’s potent attack led by senior Leah Rehm, whose 150-plus career goals included an astonishing 55 this fall.
WG lived up to that task most of the way, hounding Rehm wherever she went and also clamping down on her teammates through a scoreless first half and a majority of the second half, too.
But as overtime began to loom, with 11 minutes left in regulation Rehm found the space she had lacked most of the evening and drilled the go-ahead shot past Julia Poissant, a goal that the Wildcats could not answer.
Also on Saturday night at SUNY-Cortland, Bishop Ludden had a chance to snare the sectional Class C championship and, by doing so, deny unbeaten top seed Cincinnatus a chance at another state title to go with the Class D crown it earned a year ago after it beat the Gaelic Knights in the sectional final.
Instead of revenge, though, the Gaelic Knights got another sobering dose of just how good the Lions have become as it took a 4-1 defeat
They went through contrasting semifinals at Vernon-Verona-Sherill, Cincinnatus routing Tully 7-1 while Ludden, against Westmoreland, had to go to two overtimes to get past the Bulldogs 2-1.
Westmoreland had knocked out three-time defending champion Sauquoit Valley in the previous round and controlled most of this game, too, taking three times as m any shots as the Gaelic Knights.
Yet all that went in for the Bulldogs’ was Jackie Downs’ first-half goal from 25 yards out which answered one where Elizabeth Gaughan directly curved a corner kick into the net.
They went through the rest of regulation and an entire OT period 1-1, with only the 15 saves from Ludden goalie Tatum Gilbertson keeping her side in it.
As it ticked toward possible penalty kicks in the second OT a scramble in front of the Bulldogs’ net led to a floating header from freshman Evelyn Allers that got past Westmoreland goalie Abrianna Metz and won it.
Whether the toll of the Westmoreland game had an effect on Ludden’s performance in the final would always be a question, but what wasn’t in question was the quality of Cincinnatus from start to finish.
Battling its way to a 1-0 halftime lead, the Lions pulled away in the late stages led by Ava Larabee and Cassia Schuyler, who both notched goals and added a pair of assists. Ludden’s lone tally came from Ashley Pawelczyk, her 27th goal of the season.
