This was, without question, the biggest week of the regular season for the Bishop Grimes girls soccer team.
Having risen to no. 4 in the state Class C rankings, with top-ranked Sauquoit Valley in front of them, the Cobras would clash with no. 6-ranked Tully last Thursday night on the turf at Onondaga Community College.
And that game was as exciting as advertised, two fluid, exciting teams going up and down the field. But it was the Black Knights getting the better of it, defeating the Cobras 4-2 to salvage a regular-season split between possible Section III Class C playoff foes.
These sides had first met Sept. 8, at Tully, a tight affair that Grimes pulled out 2-1. It remained the Black Knights’ lone defeat of the season, and Tully was bent on getting even with the Cobras and snatching momentum less than two weeks before the Section III Class C playoffs got underway.
Twice, Tully went in front, and twice Grimes tied it up. Trailing 1-0 late in the first half, the Cobras got on the board with Kennedy Yearby’s goal in the 30th minute, only to have the Black Knights emerge from a scrum to net a goal right before the horn to go up 2-1 at the break.
It looked, for a moment, that Grimes had weathered this crisis when Katy McInerney headed in Yearby’s corner kick in the 53rd minute. Less than six minutes later, though, Tully reclaimed the lead and tacked on an insurance goal in the last four minutes.
Marissa Curtis made nine saves in goal, the same total as Black Knights counterpart Emily Lantiegne. Alexi Hamilton would score twice for Tully as Hannah Leva and Emme Perkins earned the other goals.
And all this came two nights after Grimes ventured to Bishop Ludden and, by a 3-0 margin, completed a regular-season sweep of the Gaelic Knights.
Having won an uneven 2-0 decision over Ludden back on Sept. 22 the Cobras wanted a higher level of play from the return engagement exactly two weeks later, but again could only manage a 1-0 halftime lead.
Not wanting any danger, the Cobras increased its level of pressure in the second half and scored twice more. Yearby and Sidney Dobbins each netted single goals, just as in the first meeting, though this time Lily Rogers joined them in the scoring column. Only the work of Ludden goalkeeper Kara Beamish, who had seven saves, kept it from getting more lopsided.
The loss to Tully left Grimes at 11-2 heading into a week where it would play Manlius-Pebble Hill, Faith Heritage and McGraw before finding out Sunday where it will get placed for the sectional tournament.
