In many ways, the 15-0-1 regular season, and no. 1 state ranking, attained by the Bishop Grimes girls soccer team was the easy part.
The hard portion started now, in the very place where things got upended a season ago during the early rounds of the Section III Class C playoffs – where familiar faces awaited the Cobras.
And none evoked more emotion than Waterville, Grimes’ opponent in Sunday’s sectional quarterfinal at Onondaga Community College. It was the very same Indians who, one year ago, stunned the then-undefeated Cobras 3-2 in this same round of the sectional tournament.
Badly wanting payback, Grimes got it, mainly on the strength of another virtuoso performance from junior striker Kennedy Yearby as the Cobras shut out the Indians 4-0.
When much of the first half passed without a goal on either side, nerves started to grow. But all of that ended when Yearby, in the 34th minute, found space near the net and drilled a shot that caromed off the post and into the net.
Even more important was goalie Jillian Firenze’s big save on a Waterville chance right before halftime, which kept it 1-0. Combined, those two signature plays helped Grimes relax, and that meant trouble for the Indians.
Less than five minutes into the second half, Yearby found the net and doubled the margin. Two minutes later the Cobras attacked again, leading to Yearby completing her hat trick.
While a solid, efficient Grimes defense kept Waterville from getting close, Yearby tacked on a fourth goal with 8:32 to play, and the Cobras could look ahead to Wednesday’s Class C semifinal against no. 4 seed and defending champion Beaver River at Fulton. The winner goes to Saturday’s 5 p.m. final at SUNY-Cortland against Tully or Sauquoit Valley.
Just to start with, Grimes had to face its neighbors from Manlius-Pebble Hill in Thursday’s opening round, and even that involved switching venues twice, from a muddy field at Grimes to Onondaga Community College (which was already booked) to Chittenango High School’s turf.
When they finally got to playing, the Cobras, who had beaten the Trojans twice in the regular season, added a third and most important victory, shutting out the Trojans 3-0.
Battling wind, rain and chilly temperatures, the two sides played through most of the first half without a goal, but Grimes seized the momentum when Katy McInerney’s header, off a feed from Toni Laneve, found the net in the 37th minute, giving the Cobras a lead it would not relinquish.
Yearby did the rest, drilling a 20-yard shot past MPH goalie Leandrah Shelmidine six minutes into the second half, and returning to beat a trio of Trojan defenders on a charge to the net that led to a second goal in the 63rd minute to clinch it.
MPH, for its part, had to survive a 1-0 overtime duel with South Lewis last Tuesday just to get going in the sectional tournament.
Neither team scored in regulation, nor in the first mandatory OT period, but in the second extra frame Jordan Dunaway-Barlow, off a feed from Mary Morocco, put one past Falcons goalie Drianna Crofolt to win it for the Trojans. Shelmidine stopped all five shots she faced.
