For a Westhill girls soccer program that holds 11 Section III championships, waiting six years for title number 12 felt way longer than the actual time span.
That helped explain the joy the Warriors felt Friday night at SUNY-Cortland, having fought off top seed Lowville 1-0 to finally get back the sectional Class B banner it had not claimed since 2008.
More than anything else, it was Westhill’s defense that led the way in the title game, never letting the undefeated Red Raiders get too many close scoring opportunities.
For that, Westhill junior defender Shelby Stack garnered MVP honors. Injured earlier this fall, Stack had never quite returned to full strength until late in the season, but she still helped the defense produce 10 shutouts prior to the sectional final.
“Our approach is to play our game, (which is) to play hard all the time and keep possession,” said Stack.
Head coach Lisa Dwyer said her team paid close attention to the way Lowville had played in Tuesday’s sectional semifinal, a 1-0 win over no. 4 seed Cazenovia, and knew that limiting the space of the Red Raiders’ forwards was crucial.
Shelby Stack anchored the back line, but she was far from alone. Between Kelly Lippert, Sam VanBuren and Abby Stack (Shelby’s younger sister), the Warriors proved alert every time the Red Raiders possessed the ball and reached Westhill’s end.
On the other side, Lowville’s defenders double-teamed Westhill’s leading goal-scorer, sophomore Jayanna Monds, at every turn, frustrating her enough to draw a yellow card late in the first half.
All that seemed to do, though, was make the Warriors mad – especially Tatiana Monds, who had taken a quieter role in the offense with her younger sister’s emergence.
In the last minute of the first half, Westhill drew a corner kick. Tatiana Monds set herself up in the middle and then, perfectly timing her move, deflected Erin McMullen’s cross past Lowville goalie Alexis Bach to put her team in front.
Throughout the second half, the Warriors’ stingy defense slammed the door on the Red Raiders, including a last-minute surge that included a Lowville corner kick that got turned away.
There wasn’t much time for Westhill to celebrate its sectional title. It returns to action Tuesday night in the opening round of the regional playoffs against Section II champion Catholic Central at Fulton. Two wins are needed for the Warriors to return to the Cortland-Homer area for the Nov. 15-16 state final four.
