Without much pain or stress, the Marcellus boys soccer team charged ahead in the Section III Class A playoffs, while West Genesee, in Class AA, and Bishop Ludden, in Class D, exited the scene in painful opening-round defeats.
Given the no. 6 seed in Class A, Marcellus started out its post-season journey in last Wednesday night’s first-round game against no. 11 seed Oneida, and proceeded to blank the Indians 3-0.
A pair of quick early goals set the tone for the Mustangs, who maintained that 2-0 lead into the second half and also kept the ball in Oneida’s end throughout the evening, holding the Indians to just one shot.
Three different Marcellus players – Ross Filtch, Adam Molinari and Mike McNaney – earned the three goals. Evan Turner gained a pair of assists, with Nate Kellar also getting an assist.
Now the Mustangs hit the road, heading east to face no. 3 seed New Hartford in Friday night’s Class A quarterfinal, and had to go to overtime – but survived that tension and got the golden goal to beat the Spartans 2-1.
A first-half goal had Marcellus in front, but New Hartford pulled even to set up the first sudeen-victory OT period, from where the Mustangs snared the game-winner.
In the Class A semifinals, Marcellus will face no. 7 seed Fulton, who knocked off no. 2 seed Vernon-Verona-Sherrill to get this far. The winner here plays the sectional final against Watertown or Jamesville-DeWitt.
West Genesee, who was the no. 9 seed in the AA sectional bracket, got off to an ideal start in last Wednesday’s first-round match at no. 8 seed Liverpool, but could not hold on in a season-ending 3-2 defeat to the Warriors.
Less than two minutes into the game, Manny Castro put home a rebound of a shot that diving Liverpool goalie Tyler Lane could not corral. In the 12th minute, the Wildcats made it 2-0 as Steve Fucillo, on a fast break, poked a shot past a charging Lane into the unoccupied net.
Yet even with that two-goal advantage, WG’s defense kept allowing a series of Liverpool runs, which would eventually pay off, especially for Jeff Meyers.
It was Meyers’ shot from the right side that found the net in the 22nd minute to get the Warriors on the board, and he returned less than five minutes later to convert on a fast break that tied it, 2-2, where it stood at halftime.
Early in the second half, off a beautiful long pass, Meyers again broke in and, again, beat Ryan Mavretish to complete his hat trick. From that point forward, WG did have a series of opportunities, but could not convert them as Lane had seven saves, the same total as Mavretish, and The Wildcats’ season ended with an 8-9 mark.
For Ludden, it was an interesting week. Moved down to Class D this fall, the Gaelic Knights gained the no. 3 seed in that sectional bracket and, initially, thought it had a first-round bye.
Then, after another check was made of the records, Alexandria Bay was added to the field as a no. 14 seed. Thus, the Gaelic Knights would have to play after all, and did so as a heavy favorite against the Purple Ghosts.
But when it was all done, Ludden had lost in a penalty-kick shoot-out. They were tied, 0-0, when midway through the second half Liam Katko scored for Ludden off a feed from Eric Emmons, only to have the Purple Ghosts answer five minutes later with Daegen Jeffers’ unassisted goal.
Thirty minutes of sudden-victory overtime settled nothing, so it went to penalty kicks. Six rounds passed, and neither side missed.
But in the seventh round, the Gaelic Knights could not convert, and when Ian Chamberlain did find the net, Alex Bay had won, pushed there by Ryan Charlesbois and his 14 saves, nearly double the total of Ludden’s Adam Lockwood, who had eight saves.
