Through all the close calls, the dramatic wins, the tough late-season defeats and a four-game post-season odyssey, the Bishop Ludden boys soccer team never blinked as it pursued a first Section III championship since 2003.
And that pursuit reached a successful conclusion last Tuesday night at Chittenango High School, where the no. 4 seed Gaelic Knights got the benefit of an early goal and took control against no. 2 seed Mount Markham, ultimately producing a 2-0 victory over the Mustangs.
All sorts of historical currents collided with each other in this sectional final, and they centered around the number 13, a figure some folks would rather avoid.
Ludden’s sectional title drought had consumed 13 years. Mount Markham, meanwhile, was pursuing a 13th sectional title and fueled by the emotion of doing so for head coach (and former sectional boys soccer chairman) Charlie Engle, who was retiring after 48 seasons at the Mustangs’ helm.
In his coaching career, Engle amassed a state-record 654 wins, and while sentimentalists may have pulled for Mount Markham to get Engle win no. 655, Ludden had its own bit of history on the line and wasn’t about to cede the stage.
A common thread that wove throughout the Gaelic Knights’ season was its inability to net early goals, waiting until the latter stages of many games, even the last seconds of regulation and overtime, to break through.
Against the Mustangs, though, Ludden tried something new – a quick goal. It came five minutes into the first half when Connor Kaminski, taking a corner kick from the right side, managed to curl the ball directly into the net past Mount Markham goalie Brad Litz.
Now the job went to Ludden’s defense to protect that one-goal lead. It had buckled down after Uber Ixlaj nearly gave the Mustangs a goal in the opening minute with a chip over Peter Lockwood’s head that just missed the net, and now continued that resistance with quiet effectiveness.
Yet for all that good work, it stayed 1-0, the Gaelic Knights knowing that one lapse could tie things up. So it felt quite relieved when, near the midway point of the second half, Lucas Scutari hustled to the rebound of a Liam Katko shot that Litz could not gather in and poked the ball home for the insurance goal.
That sealed it, and the Gaelic Knights celebrated a long-awaited sectional title, but quickly got back to work because, on Saturday morning at 11:15 a.m., it ventures to Oneonta’s Wright National Soccer Complex looking to beat Section IV champion Lansing in the Class C regional final with a state final four berth at stake.
