Put on separate ends of the Section III Class B playoff bracket, the Westhill and Marcellus boys soccer teams have a chance to match up in the championship round, and each are one win from pulling that off.
The no. 4 seed Warriors met no. 5 seed Holland Patent in Friday’s quarterfinal at Solvay’s Earl Hadley Stadium. Glad to be on a quick, clean turf field, the Warriors got yet another virtuoso effort from Anthony Scaravillo and zoomed past the Golden Knights 5-1.
Largely due to Scaravillo’s ability to work past HP’s defenders and finish off scoring opportunities, Westhill gained a 3-0 edge by halftime, and never let the Golden Knight pull closer.
All told, Scaravillo had four goals, giving him 31 for the season, with Kyle Hunt leading the set-up men as he got a pair of assists. Steve Underwood earned the other goal as Luke Clark, Tim Sheridan and Jack Powers each had one assist.
Marcellus, as the no. 7 seed, would wait until Saturday to face no. 2 seed Ilion, and would get involved in a wild, exciting affair, but would pull through with a 6-4 victory over the Golden Bombers.
Neither side could stop the other in the first half, but the difference was that Marcellus was more potent, seizing a 4-2 lead. Ilion, featuring Daniel Ward and Nate Laymon (each with two goals and one assist), kept on applying pressure in the second half, and the Mustangs kept answering.
Five different Marcellus players scored, led by Keenan Vaughn, who got two goals and one assist. Eric Dorio and Mark Tompkins each posted one goal and one assist, with Nate Waite and Sean Dunn also finding the net. Eric Daggett, despite his share of struggles in the net, recorded nine saves.
Both sides had no problems in Wednesday’s cold, wet opening round, unleashing all kinds of scoring capability. Westhill dismissed no. 13 seed Lowville 9-0, while Marcellus had similar amounts of success routing no. 10 seed Mount Markham 8-0.
It was over quite early between Westhill and Lowville. The Warriors had a 6-0 advantage on the Red Raiders by halftime, and spent the rest of the contest emptying the bench and making sure the main players stayed injury-free.
Scaravillo was more of a distributor, with three assists to go with his lone goal. In all, eight different players scores, with only Jack Haber finding the net twice.
Hunt, Clark, Barak BenYehuda, Pat Schoenborn, Matt Torak and Fletcher Chapin joined Scaravillo with single goals as Conor Powell, Jeff Dimond and Evan Radin earned assists.
Marcellus, meanwhile, split up its large production against Mount Markham, getting four goals in each half to establish clear superiority among the two Mustang sides.
Dunn and Vaughn both had two goals and one assist. Mike McNaney also found the net twice, while Dorio and Zack Diillon had the other goals. Tom McNaney, Liam Carroll and Geoff Golick earned assists.
Now the two sides would engage in separate Class B semifinals – Westhill trying to upend undefeated top seed Clinton and avenge a 2-0 defeat to those other Warriors in the regular season, Marcellus taking a shot at no. 3 seed South Jefferson, who needed a penalty-kick shoot-out to get past Cazenovia in its quarterfinal.
