Having prevailed by 2-1 margins twice in order to claim the Section III Class AA championship, it only figured that the Liverpool girls soccer team’s regional final Saturday against Section II champion Bethlehem at Fulton would also end with a 2-1 score.
But this time, it was the other side finishing on top.
With a berth in next weekend’s state Class AA final four at stake, the Warriors and Eagles would take their battle into overtime before Bethlehem inched out in front early in the extra period and, with its tenacious, physical defense, managed to stay there.
Neither team was expected to make it here. While Liverpool had upended the top two seeds, Baldwinsville and Cicero-North Syracuse, in its sectional tournament, Bethlehem had gone one better, rising from a no. 6 seed to topple the top three seeds in Section II, including a 2-1 finals win over top seed Saratoga Springs.
They were also young teams – Liverpool with just three seniors on its roster, Bethlehem with just two – so the experience factor didn’t favor either side as the stakes grew higher.
This was a rematch of the 2011 regional final won by Bethlehem. With a cold wind whipping across the Fulton turf, it would take a while for both sides to warm up, as the opening stages brought lots of possession time for the Warriors and Eagles, but no serious scoring threats.
Liverpool stayed patient, though, and in the 18th minutes freshman Emily Dorr, in just the right place, got hold of a deflected pass and drilled a low shot inside the left post and past Bethlehem goalie Miranda Manziano, just the fifth goal she had allowed since Sept. 20.
Soon it was apparent that Liverpool would need to protect that 1-0 lead, because its attack, especially the likes of Meagan O’Neill and Ore Akinpelu, ran headlong into tough Eagles defenders and were shut down the rest of the half.
Changing tactics, the Warriors started the second half with more players in the back, offering protection to goalie Julia Richey that, for more than 20 minutes, proved successful.
All of that changed, though, in the 61st minute, when Kassie Hautau, who as a junior is one of Bethlehem’s older forwards, got open in the middle and quickly shot it off Richey’s hands into the net, tying it at 1-1.
For the rest of regulation, it stayed even, largely due to Manziano, who made at least three point-blank stops to prevent Liverpool from moving forward. Instead of that, the game would go to a pair of mandatory 10-minute overtime periods.
Less than three minutes into the first OT, the Eagles’ Kaylee Richert moved past the defense and zeroed in on Richey. Before Richey could reach out for the ball, Richert slid it past her, and it rolled past the goal line.
For the remaining 17-plus minutes of the extra period, the Eagles’ defense closed ranks even further, making sure than Manziano was not threatened again. Then time ran out, and with it the Warriors’ dreams of a state title.
Still, at 14-3-2, Liverpool exceeded its own expectations. Losing Akinpelu, along with Kasi Cabrey and Logan Rubio, will prove tough, but having O’Neill, Richey, Dorr, Brisa Salinas, Leanne Barnard, Breanna Murphy and Alex Bittel, among others, back for 2015 means that Liverpool can dream big again.
