Nearly two decades removed from the last time it went all the way to the top, and two years after falling just one step short of that summit, the Westhill girls soccer team again were denied at the last hurdle.
On a sunny Sunday morning at SUNY-Cortland, the Warriors fell to Section IV champion Chenango Forks 2-1, the Blue Devils keeping Westhill from snaring its fourth state title in program history and first since 1999.
What made it more painful was that the state no. 1-ranked Warriors led going into the second half, only to surrender that advantage in a wild turn of events that included a disallowed go-ahead goal by Jayanna Monds.
The game was tied, 1-1, when in the 54th minute Monds took a long pass from Erica Gangemi, worked her way around two defenders and then slid a low shot past Chenango Forks goalkeeper Hannah Fuller.
But as Westhill’s players were celebrating, officials conferred and ruled that the ball had gone out of bounds near the midfield stripe before Gangemi possessed it. The sideline official did not raise his flag, so the play went on – and the ruling came after the ball went in the net.
“That was the turning point,” said Westhill head coach Lisa Dwyer. “Mentally, you try to rebound from it, but it just didn’t happen.”
Instead, within minutes the Warriors were trailing as Kaitlyn Walsh converted on a long shot to put the Blue Devils in front, and Forks protected that lead the rest of the way with superb all-around play.
Forks, who defeated Newfane (Section VI) 1-0 in the other state semifinal, came into the game 22-0 and was seeking the program’s first-ever state championship. Ironically, the Blue Devils got started in the state playoffs by prevailing in the regional round with a 1-0 shutout of Bronxville, the same team that beat Westhill in the 2014 state final.
They played the first 20 minutes on fairly even terms, but it was the Warriors earning three corner kicks in the early going, not converting on any of them, but probing the Forks defense and waiting to straighten things out.
It happened in the 23rd minute, when on Westhill’s fourth corner kick Blue Devils goalie Hannah Fuller could not hang on to the cross from Katelyn Karelski, allowing freshman defender Reilly Geer to sprint in and pass it to Erin McMullen, who shot it into the right side of the net.
Defensively, the Warriors, led by Geer, Abby Stack, Hannah Dorfman and Sam VanBuren, proved sound whenever it needed to contain the Forks attack. And when the Blue Devils’ Hannah Bough made a run in the 36th minute, Bella Lavigne made a save at the near post, keeping it 1-0 going into halftime.
Forks came out strong in the second half, though, and that pressure paid off in the 48th minute when, off a throw-in in the deep corner, Emma Bough flashed open in front and powered it home to tie it, 1-1.
Six minutes later, Monds thought she had broken the tie, but it proved otherwise and, within six minutes, Walsh had put Forks in front to stay, taking a free kick from midfield and, from 30 yards out, rocketed a shot into the top right corner of the net that Lavigne had no chance to stop.
Westhill had come back before in the post-season, doing so to beat Clinton in overtime in the Section III final, but Forks knew how to protect a lead, capably possessing the ball for long portions of the homestretch and completing its perfect run to the
For the Warriors, getting to that title game required a victory Saturday in the state semifinal against Long Island champion Wheatley at Cortland High School, something that Westhill achieved thanks to a hat trick from Monds as it defeated the Wildcats 3-1.
Entering the state final four, Monds already owned 25 goals on the season, and Wheatley, though it knew it had to contain her, also had to pay attention to Erin McMullen, Megan O’Reilly, Katelyn Karleski and the Warriors’ other dangerous offensive threats.
But midway through the first half, Monds broke free and converted, giving Westhill a 1-0 lead. It stayed that way until early in the second half, when within short order Monds found the net twice more, making it 3-0.
Wheatley would convert on a long free kick in the waning minutes, but it couldn’t keep the Warriors from advancing to the final, where it hoped to end a 17-year wait for the state title, but got thwarted.
Now Westhill will see Monds, McMullen and Stack graduate, but a large cast returns in 2017, including Lavigne, Geer, Gangemi, Dorfman, VanBuren, Megan O’Reilly, Morgan Elmer, Katelyn Karleski and Ciarra Rudnick, bent on getting back to the state final four and finally reaching the top.
