Steadily, round by round, the Bishop Ludden boys soccer team has gained strength and confidence, which puts them on the brink of a first Section III championship since 2003.
When wet, windy and cold weather descended upon Central New York, Ludden took the unusual step of pushing back its sectional Class B quarterfinal against no. 5 seed Westmoreland.
Instead of playing during the Oct. 20-22 window, as teams in every other class did, the Gaelic Knights waited until Monday night, when it knew that its home field would be in better condition.
As it turned out, it was a wise move. The evening was still cold and windy, but dry, and the better conditions allowed Ludden to shake itself from the pattern of close games decided late in regulation (like its opening-round win over Faith Heritage) or in overtime and defeat Westmoreland 2-0.
The Gaelic Knights got an early goal on the Bulldogs, and then doubled that 1-0 margin in the second half as Eric Emmons had a part in both of his team’s goals, scoring one of them and assisting on the other, by Mack McCurn. Cam Kaminski assisted on Edmonds’ goal.
All game long, Ludden dominated the possession time, camping out in Westmoreland’s end. Only the inspired work of Bulldogs goalie Luke Fredsell, who made 16 saves, kept things close.
The only possible drawback involved with playing that quarterfinal last Monday was that the Gaelic Knights would get just one day of rest and recovery before confronting top seed and state no. 12-ranked Thousand Islands in Wednesday’s sectional semifinal at Lowville.
But neither the short rest, nor the long trip, nor the quality of the opposition, nor a slow start, did anything to derail Ludden, who played one of its best 40 minutes of the season to turn things around and earn a 3-1 victory over the Vikings.
As it turned out, the fatigue factor hit both teams at different points of the evening. The long bus trip didn’t help the Gaelic Knights in the first half as Thousand Islands grabbed a 1-0 lead on Ethan Clement’s goal, assisted by Mike Wetterhahn.
Thanks to a solid defense, though, Ludden didn’t let the Vikings get many more opportunities. Then, in the second half, the Gaelic Knights picked up its pressure, knowing that Thousand Islands had gone through two overtimes and a shootout in its quarterfinal win over Tully and would have trouble keeping up.
Not only did the Gaelic Knights pull even, it also took the lead and tacked on an insurance goal, the run sparked by Lucas Scutari, who scored twice, and Kaminski, who earned a pair of assists. Emmons scored the other goal as Ludden overcame nine saves by Vikings goalie Noah Ingerson.
On Tuesday night at Chittenango High School, the sectional Class C title gets decided, with all kinds of things at stake when the Gaelic Knights takes on no. 2 seed Mount Markham, who beat Cooperstown 2-0 in the other semifinal.
Aside from the sectional banner and the ticket to the state tournament, there is also the fact that Mount Markham’s long-time head coach, Charlie Engel, is retiring at season’s end, having won 12 sectional titles in his half-century coaching the Mustangs.
Ludden is determined to prevent giving Engel a 13th title while, ironically enough, breaking its own 13-year championship drought.
