For 20 exciting minutes Friday night at SUNY-Cortland, the Westhill girls soccer team veered from joy to concern to fear to relief, all of it caused by a young, fearless opponent who shared their Warrior nickname and their hunger to gain the Section III Class B championship.
Yet once it survived that journey, Westhill pushed on to overtime, where Katelyn Karleski’s goal made the difference in a 3-2 victory over Clinton that produced the program’s second sectional title in three years.
“That was very scary,” said Westhill head coach Lisa Dwyer. “Clinton is a great team.”
At least this time it worked out, unlike in 2015, when Westhill’s title defense was halted by long-time rival Marcellus in a 1-0 sectional final decided by an own goal. Karleski said the memory of that defeat had pushed the team for 12 months to find redemption.
But Clinton sure wasn’t going to make it easy. Already in the sectional playoffs, those other Warriors, holding the no. 7 seed, had gone to Marcellus and stunned the no. 2 seed Mustangs in the quarterfinals, followed by a semifinal upset of no. 3 seed Lowville, each of them 1-0 decisions.
Going in, the assumption was that Westhill, with its potent, multifaceted attack, would get most of the opportunities and that Clinton, with a defense that already had proved so effective in the post-season, would hold back and wait for chances to counter-attack.
For a half, those assumptions held up. Though Westhill had a fair amount of opportunities, it could not put deep stress on the Clinton net, and it remained 0-0, though it only proved a warm-up for the excitement ahead.
When Erin McMullen, off a feed from Abby Stack, put one past Clinton goalie Kaitlyn Williams just 2:29 into the second half to give Westhill a 1-0 lead, it was supposed to open things up, which it did – just not in the way that Westhill partisans expected.
Less than six minutes later, Clinton pulled even, 1-1, when Emmeline McPherson took a pass from Elyse Jackson and found the net. Before Westhill could regroup, Clinton pushed again and, in the 52nd minute, earned a corner kick that D’Arby Angelo converted, with Hannah Owens earning the assist.
Suddenly, Westhill trailed, 2-1, but Karleski said she did not panic too much.
“I was really nervous,” she said. “But I knew we could come back.”
To do so, said Dwyer, required both conditioning and getting the ball to the outside, where Westhill’s athletic forwards could draw defenders to them and then make plays to the middle.
With 17:17 left in regulation, Karleski did just that, moving the ball to corner before passing to the point, where Megan O’Reilly, from 30 yards, sent a low shot just inside the left post to tie the game, 2-2.
They stayed that way until overtime. With two minutes left in the first extra period, Jayanna Monds took a shot from the left side that hit the post, but bounced right to Karleski, who sent it past Williams.
Back in front, Westhill spent the remaining 12-plus minutes covering its flanks, and though Clinton had multiple runs, it could not pull back even.
Before all this, Westhill put home nine goals in its two playoff wins, blanking South Jefferson 4-0 in its quarterfinal and then, in the sectional semifinal last Tuesday at Nottingham High School, put everything together to shut out no. 4 seed Skaneateles 5-0.
When the two sides met late in September, Westhill beat Skaneateles 4-0, and it was the same here as the Lakers found itself in a defensive mode right away, turning away many chances, but surrendering a goal in the 12th minute when Karleski’s touch free kick was fit inside the left post by McMullen.
Skaneateles had to count on clearing the ball out of its own end and, perhaps, having someone like Raenah Campbell take advantage. In the game’s most crucial turn of events, Lavigne ran out to the edge of the 18-yard box midway through the first half and pounced on the ball before Campbell could poke it past her.
Lavigne’s aggressive play instead sparked the Warriors on the other end. McMullen, off a free kick, converted again in the 24th minute. Before Skaneateles could regroup, Westhill had the ball in the Lakers’ end again, and Monds sent a low shot past a sliding Sophie Kush in the 34th minute to put the margin to 3-0.
That’s where it stood at halftime, but Westhill wasn’t content. Monds would strike for a second goal on a long run near the midway point of the second half and, 30 seconds later, O’Reilly scored. Stack and Morgan Elmer each got credit for assists, along with Karleski.
Three nights later, the sectional championship was secured against Clinton, and Westhill went back to the state tournament, where it takes on Section II champion Schalmont Tuesday at 4:30 at Fulton in a clash of the state’s top two ranked teams, the Warriors needing a pair of regional wins in order to advance to the Nov. 12-13 state final four.
“This is our year,” said Karleski. “We’re hoping we can go very far.”
