What the entire season for the Westhill boys soccer team will boil down to is how it fares in six different games against Laker foes, including the two that will help decide the Section III Class B championship.
In order to get to the title game, the no. 2 seed Warriors had to fight past no. 3 seed Skaneateles 2-1 in Wednesday night’s semifinal at Jamesville-DeWitt, denying those Lakers a chance at a sectional three-peat.
And in order to win the sectional crown, Westhill will need to get past no. 4 seed Cazenovia in the title game Tuesday night at Baldwinsville’s Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium after those other Lakers knocked off top seed South Jefferson 1-0 in its semifinal game.
Of course, getting through Skaneateles was difficult enough. Between them, Westhill (in 2012 and ’13) and Skaneateles (in 2010, ‘14 and ’15) had accounted for five of the last six sectional championships, so there was plenty of recent, important history to draw upon for this match-up.
Yet it was Westhill that carried more confidence into the game because it hadn’t lost to Skaneateles in either of their 2016 encounters, salvaging a 1-1 draw at Hyatt Stadium in early September and then, less than three weeks later, prevailing 3-2 in overtime on its home turf.
Now, at Jamesville_DeWitt, the Warriors didn’t waste much time getting out in front. Just 2:29 into the game. Westhill was awarded a free kick, and Cameron Rudnick converted it,, helping Westhill grab a 1-0 lead that stood for the rest of the first half.
All through the early going, the Lakers probed, but could not solve, an airtight Westhill defense, but it stayed patient and, early in the second half, broke through when Tristan Custer’s long pass found Reggie Buell, and Buell fired it into the net, tying it at 1-1.
Having moved players forward and seen it work, Skaneateles hoped this would lead to a go-ahead goal. But it didn’t happen and, instead, Jon Holl converted just past the midway point of the half, and it proved the game-winner, with the defense shutting down anything the Lakers tried in the late going.
And this brings Westhill back to the sectional final, with a chance at a 10th sectional crown, quite a contrast to Cazenovia, who has never won a sectional championship before, falling in the 2014 final to Sknaeateles.
Yet these Lakers gave the Warriors its lone defeat of the season, 4-1, on Sept. 10 at the Sean Googin Sports Complex. Westhill got even a month later by that same 4-1 margin at home, with the tie-breaker a championship showdown.
