Through its first five games, the Marcellus girls soccer team had not only won them all, it wasn’t even pushed beyond regulation.
All of that changed last Monday night at Alibrandi Stadium, where Christian Brothers Academy kept things scoreless until overtime, when a particularly well-constructed set piece helped the Mustangs prevail 1-0.
Right from the start, it was clear that CBA wasn’t going to give Marcellus much room to operate, and chances were rare on both sides until the pace picked up late in the second half.
Even when the Brothers did get some room, it couldn’t make much of a dent in a Mustangs defense in the process of recording its fifth consecutive shutout.
Jasmine Brockway, Emma Hutchings, Lauren Keyes and the rest of the back line kept on making strips and stops, while goalie Kendall Koloski stopped all eight shots she faced.
That work wasn’t rewarded until two minutes into the first OT period. The Mustangs had a corner kick and played it short, Caroline Trytek passing it to Ilah Welsh, who quickly gave it back to Trytek.
As Trytek crossed to the middle, freshman Sara Mielnicki flashed open and pushed a shot past Abby Benware. That goal held up, even though Benware stopped Anna Vetsch’s penalty kick, with CBA’s Katy Stanard putting a free kick off the crossbar late in the first OT.
Right after, Marcellus found out that it held the no. 2 spot in the first state Class B rankings of the fall and would defend that spot in Thursday’s non-league game at Cicero-North Syracuse.
Here, the Mustangs’ defense would really have to work hard, but it somehow pulled off another 1-0 victory, only in this case the goal came in the first half and Vetsch converted it, running up the middle and, taking a pass from Sarah Hutchings, converting it.
Even with Brockway, Keyes and Emma Hutchings getting plenty of help from teammates, C-NS took 41 shots. Though many flew off target, Kolinski had to make 15 saves, one of them on a penalty kick.
All of this may have taken a toll, for when Marcellus faced state no. 6-ranked Clinton on Saturday, the winning streak halted as the defense finally showed some vulnerability in a 4-0 defeat.
Clinton wasted little time, roaring out to a 3-0 halftime edge. Kolinski, paired with Emily Durand in the net, made 19 saves between them, yet saw Graci Dreimiller score twice for the Warriors as Riley Jones and Maddy Luke had the other goals.
Westhill, by contrast, wasn’t even state-ranked, but the Warriors did play well in last Tuesday’s 5-1 victory over Homer, jumping all over the Trojans with five unanswered goals in the first half.
Erica Gangemi led the charge, scoring twice and adding an assist. Ciarra Rudnick had one goal and one assist, with Maddy Cole and Sophia Caron also finding the net. Olivia Bolesh and Lauren Holstein picked up assists.
Two days later, Westhill handled Mexico 3-0, again with an early outburst. Gangemi had two more goals and Rudnick had the other goal, all before halftime, with goalie Lauren Bendall stopping all seven Tigers shots she faced.
