A generation of Westhill boys soccer fans had waited nearly a quarter-century for the chance on Sunday afternoon to earn a second state championship to go with the one earned back in 1992.
And it all came down to the Warriors attempting to knock off Hastings in the title game at Middletown High School, at the same facility where, three years earlier, Westhill was thwarted in the finals by Carle Place.
While it hoped for a different result, Hastings hoped otherwise – and used a scoring blitz midway through the first half to seize control, never relinquishing it as the Yellow Jackets went on to defeat the Warriors 3-1.
By the time they kicked off, Westhill was the last Section III team still with a chance at a state championship. Westhill’s girls had fallen in its state Class B final earlier in the days, as had girls teams from Jamesville-DeWitt (Class A) and Poland (Class D), while in boys soccer the only other Section III side that made the state final four, New Hartford, lost in the Class A semifinals to New Hartford.
The day had proved full of tension, with three other state finals decided in double overtime. Perhaps reflecting that tension, the start was slow as both sides looked for early advantages, but could not find them.
Then, midway through the first half, Jackson Silverstein’s 15-yard shot sailed past Antonio Scrimale into the net, and Hastings had a 1-0 lead. Less than five minutes later, a free kick by the Yellow Jackets got crossed and then put into the net and, suddenly, the Warriors trailed by two, where it stood at halftime.
Needing a tremendous comeback as the sun set over Middletown, Westhill began to attack hard in a way it hadn’t earlier in the game. Braeden Elmer’s chance early in the second half got turned away by Hastings goalie Daymon Theodule, when an early goal may have caused doubt on the Yellow Jackets’ part.
Continuing in waves, the Warriors pressed, but Hastings maintained the shutout, and then expanded upon its lead in the 55th minute when Oscar Periera curled a perfect 25-yard free kick through the Westhill wall and inside the left post.
Minutes later, the Warriors finally got on the board three minutes later thanks to Jon Holl’s free-kick goal from more than 35 yards out. From there, though, the Yellow Jackets made sure Westhill didn’t inch closer and sealed up its first state championship in program history.
Westhill had defeated Livonia, the Section V champions, 2-1 in Saturday’s state semifinal, the same margin by which Hastings, the Section I champions, had held off Ichabod Crane (Section II) in its semifinal game,
Westhill and Livonia did have a recent history in state tournament semifinals – only that was in baseball, where in June 2015 the Bulldogs managed to prevail 3-2 over the Warriors. Seventeen months later, the margin was the same, but the outcome different.
Probing through the game’s early stages, Westhill was rewarded in the 14th minute when Bernat Carbonell, again coming up with a big post-season contribution, fired a shot into the net.
Exactly eight minutes later, it was 1-1, Livonia pulling even thanks to Mark Brado’s goal, assisted by Ryan Henderson. Unfazed by this, Westhill resumed its attack and, in the 34th minute, took the lead for good when Jack Miller converted, only his second goal of the season.
That left 46-plus minutes for the Warriors to cling to that one-goal margin. It did so thanks to a defense that, all season, had done unselfish work hustling to the ball and protecting goalkeeper Antonio Scrimale, also covering the goal line whenever Scrimale drifted out to make a stop.
This continued throughout the long, tense second half, and it allowed Westhill entry into the state final, where Hastings was waiting.
