Even when separated by more than 50 miles and two different leagues, the Marcellus and Westhill girls soccer teams still end up tied together.
On a wondrous Tuesday evening, as the state Class B no. 9-ranked Warriors edged past state no. 2-ranked Cazenovia 2-1 in overtime, the Mustangs beat Christian Brothers Academy 3-1, giving long-time head coach Laurie Updike her 300th career victory.
So much of Updike’s wondrous coaching tenure – 300 wins against just 44 defeats and 15 draws, 13 Section III titles, two state championships – included big games against Westhill. Indeed, the Mustangs’ lone defeat this season was a 1-0 decision to the Warriors in a tournament on Sept. 4.
So it only figured that, on this night, as Marcellus battled to get Updike to her career milestone, Westhill was engaged in its own high-profile classic with Cazenovia, whose 8-0 start had led to its highest state ranking in recent memory.
Through a scoreless first half, the Warriors and Lakers played on fairly even terms. Shelby Stack, Morgan Hayes, Sam VanBuren, Kelly Lippert and other Westhill defenders took turns running with Cazenovia’s top scorer, Audrey Burbidge, though Burbidge had plenty of chances, pulling a wide-open shot just wide moments before halftime.
Deep into the second half, it was still 0-0. Then, in the final 10 minutes of regulation, it all went wild.
Meg O’Reilly began the fun when, with 9:52 left, she lofted a long pass from midfield and Jayanna Monds ran it down before dribbling around Cazenovia defenders and poking a shot past Cazenovia’s goalie, Maggie Johnson, who had run out to try and stop her.
Without Johnson, who made most of her 18 saves in the second half, the Lakers would have faltered long before the end of regulation.
With four minutes left, after a handball inside the 18-yard box, Tatiana Monds had a chance to put it away with a penalty kick, but Johnson made a diving stop, and then made two more terrific saves moments later.
Fired up by those stops, Cazenovia made one more push late in regulation. With exactly one minute to play, Saige Ackermann, open at the point, took a pass from Casey Crawford and rocketed a hard shot to the top of the net that Westhill goalie Ariana Henneberry had no chance to stop.
So it was on to overtime, where it was quiet for most of the 20 minutes. But with 2:54 left in the second extra period, Westhill got another breakaway and Jayanna Monds flashed open again, taking a timely pass from Dana Radin and hitting it past Johnson.
Still, it wasn’t over. The Lakers made one more last-minute charge, with a shot that glanced off a Laker player and rolled wide, allowing the Warriors to hang on.
Marcellus, for the most part, avoided this type of tension as it dealt with CBA, determined not to let the quest for Updike’s 300th win linger any longer than necessary.
Bri Sammon had much to do with making it a successful evening for the Mustangs. Twice in the first half, Sammon broke through the Brothers’ defenses and put in goals, negating a tally from CBA’s Bella Vlassis and putting Marcellus in front, 2-1, going into halftime.
With Marcellus playing superb defense throughout the second half, it had time to get a bit of a cushion, and Sammon provided it, hitting on her third goal to complete the hat trick.
Madison Belvito earned two assists, while Jada Sargeant earned the other assist. Between them, the Mustangs’ pair of goalies, Meg Blystone and Maggie Fiacchi, made six saves.
As it turned out, the CBA game had a bigger margin than Thursday’s visit to Fulton, a tense affair where the Mustangs held on to shut out the Red Raiders 1-0.
With so much of Fulton’s defensive attention on the likes of Sammon, Belvito and Sargeant, it was Molly Tice who stepped in and put her team in front in the first half. Remarkably, that goal held up thanks to a stingy Marcellus defense that got five combined saves from Blystone and Emily Buschbascher.
