Not once, in its run to the state Class B final four, had the Westhill girls soccer team trailed in the post-season. Yet that is what the Warriors had to deal with during Saturday night’s state semifinal against Bronxville on the turf at SUNY-Cortland.
For the most part, the Warriors handled that challenge well, giving itself all kinds of opportunities to catch up. But it could not cash in on any them as the Broncos, the Section I champions from Westchester County, prevailed by a 1-0 margin.
Lamenting those missed chance, Westhill head coach Lisa Dwyer said “it should have been a 2-1 game. You’ve got to capitalize on the offensive end, and we just didn’t do it.”
Long before that, though, the main concern for Dwyer was seeing how difficult it was for her players to get comfortable in this high-pressure situation as Westhill tried to inch closer to its first state championship since 1999.
“They were scared,” said Dwyer, reflecting upon a first half where, for the most part, Bronxville controlled the flow of play and kept the Warriors’ formidable group of defenders busy in front of goalie Arlana Heneberry.
Exactly 15 minutes into the first half, the Broncos’ pressure paid off. Sophomore defender Mason Warble sent a long pass from the right side to fellow sophomore Beth Finley, who from 20 yards out rocketed a hard shot to the top of the net that Heneberry had no chance to stop.
Now trailing by a goal, Westhill remained in a defensive posture, with Heneberry having to make a tremendous sliding save on a hard shot in the 29th minute to keep the Broncos from doubling the margin.
By the end of the half, though, the Warriors were finally organizing its attack, sending the likes of Tatiana Monds, Dana Radin and Erin McMullen on long runs to make Bronxville pay for the double and triple teams that leading scorer Jayanna Monds saw for much of the night.
Early in the second half, Westhill’s pressure picked up. And it culminated in the 49th minute when Tatiana Monds, sprinting down the right side, sent a well-timed cross to the middle that Broncos goalie Charley Warble could not handle.
Radin was waiting right in front of Warble, and when the ball turned loose, Radin found herself with a wide-open shot into an unoccupied net- and hit it wide.
More chances followed, with Jayanna Monds getting her best look at the net with 11:35 left, only to put that shot wide, too. As the final minutes ticked down, Bronxville proved effective in eating up large chunks of the clock by possessing the ball and going to the far corners, more than 100 yards from its own net, protecting its slim margin.
Dwyer said that, every time the Warriors made a serious push, Bronxville used its team speed to fly back and fill whatever gaps may have opened up.
“They were quicker than us,” said Dwyer.
The Broncos moved on and beat Port Jefferson (Section XI) 3-0 in Sunday’s final, also at SUNY-Cortland, to match it 2010 state title run, while Westhill saw its 19-2-1 campaign that included a first Section III championship in six years and a romp through the regional playoffs come to an end.
Radin, Isabella Haber (the New York State Sportsmanship Award winner), Kelly Lippert and Tatiana Monds graduate, but a large and talented cast is back for the Warriors in 2015, including Heneberry, Shelby Stack, Abby Stack, Meg O’Reilly, Erin McMullen and Sam VanBuren. Having tasted the pressure of a state final four, the Warriors want to partake of the whole feast next fall.
