Some people have happier birthdays than others – like Erin McMullen did on Thursday night.
McMullen, along with her Westhill girls soccer teammates, ventured to Marcellus and dominated most of the game, eventually winning 5-2, though the Warriors would have to go to overtime to get that margin on the Mustangs.
It was the only time in the regular season that Westhill and Marcellus, long the dominant teams in Section III Class B girls soccer, would meet. Over the years, their encounters always carried an extra meaning and carried an extra intensity.
For this occasion, the Warriors brought an athletic, aggressive attack that would aggravate the Mustangs from the opening whistle and produce a lead in the game’s first 90 seconds, thanks to McMullen, the birthday girl.
Forcing a corner kick, Westhill’s Katelyn Karleski took it from the right side. The ball went untouched among several players on both teams before McMullen, just left of the net, powered a shot past Grace Coon into the top right corner of the net.
All through the first half, the Warriors made runs at the Marcellus defense, but the likes of Elisa LaBombard, Kaleigh Kemp, Shelby Sutphin and Macie Szalach kept making stops.
Then, two minutes before halftime, the Mustangs, who had not taken a shot all night, tied it, 1-1, when Anna Vetsch broke loose at midfield and, on a solo run, got past the Warrior defenders and lofted a shot over the head of Bella Lavigne into the net.
Thus, despite all of the Warriors’ opportunities, it was 1-1, and it stayed that way until the midway point of the second half, when McMullen struck again with a curling shot on the left side after taking the feed from freshman Ciarra Rudnick.
Again, the Mustangs’ defenders did hard work to keep it a one-goal margin, and again a counterattack produced an equalizing goal when Vetsch, taking a pass from Taylor Reich, lofted a hard shot from the left side that soared past Lavigne with 5:37 left in regulation.
With two minutes left, Jayanna Monds thought she had netted the game-winner, but was called for a foul just before the shot. Somehow, Marcellus, on its heels most of the night, had pulled yet another Mustangs-Warriors soccer showdown to overtime.
Yet even though it had every right to feel frustration that it got this far, the Warriors cranked up its attack again, and with 2:36 left in the first OT regained the lead for good, Karleski getting the goal off a great series of passes as Monds earned the assist.
Mere seconds before the first extra period ended, McMullen’s special day was capped when she took Monds’ pass and completed her hat trick with a third goal. Monds then got a goal that did count in the second OT.
It was quite a seven-day stretch for Marcellus, who had lost, 2-0, to Jamesville-DeWitt on Sept. 9, and then ventured to Hyatt Stadium last Tuesday night to face another big rival, Skaneateles, having to work all the way to the end to beat the Lakers 2-1.
The key to the outcome was that the Mustangs blanked Skaneateles in the first half. Then it built a 2-0 advantage thanks to goals by Liz White and Michaela Tangredi, with Taylor Gould adding an assist.
Battling to the end, Skaneateles pulled within one on Shay McCarthy’s late goal assisted by Grace Buchholz, but could not pull even. The Lakers took more shots, but saw Grace Coon and Mary Colella combine for nine saves, five more than Grace Kush had in 80 minutes of work.
A day before Marcellus topped Skaneateles, Westhill blasted Solvay 9-0 last Monday night at Al Merola Field, getting a three-goal hat trick from Erin McMullen as Monds, whose three goals beat Jamesville-DeWitt on Sept. 6, scored twice on this night, adding an assist.
Rudnick also scored twice for Westhill, while Haley Mikus and Mackenzie Powers. Erica Gangemi and Megan O’Reilly each picked up a pair of assists. Karleski, Abby Stack and Ashley Corning had single assists. Solvay goalkeeper Haley Muehl made 13 saves.
Recovering from this rout, Solvay beat Hannibal 1-0 on Friday afternoon, the lone goal coming from Maya Martineau in the first half. Hannibal took more shots, but Muehl made 13 saves to record the shutout.
