From 2008 to 2010, Sophie Jackson was a girls soccer standout at Marcellus, claiming a Section III Class B title in her senior year. Part of her motivation that year was the fact, that, in 2009, Solvay knocked the Mustangs out of the sectional tournament.
Since then, Marcellus had never lost to the Bearcats – until last Friday night, when of all people Jackson, now coaching at Solvay, brought her team to Marcellus and knocked off her alma mater in a 1-0 thriller.
As often happens in soccer, one side – the Mustangs – had a majority of the possession, and did nothing with it while the other side – the Bearcats – loaded up the box with 10 defenders, saw Haley Muehl stop all 19 shots she faced and waited for a single close-up chance on the other end.
With 5:52 left and the game still 0-0, Solvay had that chance, a free kick that Taylor Clisson curved into the net. With a little time to answer, the Mustangs swarmed Muehl again, but could not force overtime.
Before all this, Solvay pushed Cazenovia in last Tuesday night’s game at Al Merola Field, but still took a 2-1 defeat to the Lakers, with Lanaya Willis earning the Bearcats’ goal off a feed from Tori Hryciw. Muehl, hinting at her Marcellus heroics, topped 18 of the 20 shots she faced.
Marcellus, meanwhile, was in the midst of a stretch where it played four games in six days, starting last Monday with a 4-1 victory over Bishop Ludden, where in the first half four different Mustangs – Anna Vetsch, Lily Powell, Taylor Reich and Tora Fey – earned four goals.
Vetsch got an assist, as did Olivia Bird and Ashley Gilmore as the Gaelic Knights did get a first-half goal from Emma Driscoll, yet could not capitalize on many other chances as Marcellus goalies Grace Coon and Mary Colella combined for 12 saves, one more than Ludden counterpart Olivia Boyea had by herself.
Far more important was the Mustangs’ tough 1-0 win over another main rival, Skaneateles, on Wednesday night.
The only goal came 14 minutes into the first half. Marcellus had a throw-in near the Skaneateles net, and the ball got to Vetsch, who turned around and hit a high, hard shot that flew over the head of Lakers goalie Grace Kush and found the net.
Kush allowed nothing more, earning 13 saves, and got lucky when Reich flung a shot off the post that could have doubled the Mustangs’ lead to 2-0. Meanwhile, the Lakers had its fair share of chances, getting none of it eight first-half shots past Grace Coon.
Kendall Koloski took over in the net during the second half, and Skaneateles attacked her, too, The best chance came when Tess Peterson got open at point-blank range, but did didn’t get a full hit on the shot, allowing Koloski to dive and stop it, one of her seven saves.
The loss to Solvay hurt, for sure, but Marcellus showed some resilience when, less than 24 hours later, it edged Carthage in its third straight 1-0 decision.
Like with the Bearcats, it went deep into the second half scoreless, but here the Mustangs pulled it out when Gilmore headed in Quinn Kinsella’s corner kick. Coon worked the full game in the net and stopped all 10 shots she faced.
Also on Wednesday night, West Genesee visited Liverpool and took a 3-0 loss to the Warriors, with the Wildcats unable to contain Bri Kovarik, who not only scored twice, but assisted on the other goal by her sister, Carli. In defeat, Wildcats goalie Liz Croft and Erin Lum combined for nine saves.
Meanwhile, Westhill took apart its fellow Warriors from Hannibal 8-0 last Monday to open its week of play, netting six of those goals in a first-half blitz and, more importantly, getting several different players involved.
Only Katelyn Karleski scored twice, with Megan O’Reilly earning three assists to go with her lone tally. Ciarra Rudnick added two assists as Lauren Holstein had one goal and one assist. Olivia Bolesh and Madeleine Jones had the other goals as Sophia Caron and Erica Gangemi picked up assists.
Now the Warriors rested until Friday night’s game at Cazenovia, where it rolled past the Lakers 6-0 as Karleski, with two goals, led a well-balanced attack. O’Reilly, Rudnick, Holstein and Lauren Marshall also found the net, with Sophia Caron gaining two assists as Gangemi also had an assist.
West Genesee also played on Friday and blanked Utica Proctor 3-0. With just a one-goal lead at halftime, the Wildcats pulled away by having Haley Elsey score twice and Jessica Mahoney also convert, with Jackie Vigliotti contributing an assist.
Ludden, after facing Marcellus, had a wild match last Tuesday with LaFayette that ended in a rare 6-6 draw. The Gaelic Knights’ Laura Patulski had three goals as Abbey Bombard, Juliana Canestrare and Olivia Boyea also scored, with Bailey Thieben and Katie Costello joining Patulski and Bombard in the assist column. Still, the Lancers matched that production, mostly due to Charlotte Ryan, who poured in four goals.
From there, Ludden fell to Onondaga 4-2 in overtime on Thursday night, even though it had rallied from a 2-0 deficit thanks to second-half goals by Bombard and Emma Driscoll, with Patulski adding an assist. The Tigers scored twice in the 20 minutes of OT and got 16 saves from goalie Jessica Southard. Avianna Baker led OCS with two goals.
Jordan-Elbridge took a 3-0 loss to Phoenix last Monday afternoon, with Emilie Hilliard netting one goal and one assist for the Firebirds as Caitlyn Connolly and Leah Schlacter had the other goals. The Eagles could not get a shot past Phoenix goalies Cheyenne Wilson and Erika Brown, who combined for 11 saves.
That deficit doubled against Chittenango, J-E getting beat 6-0 by the Bears as five of those goals came in the first half. Mia Arms, with 15 saves, could do little against Chittenango forward Sarah Martin, who had four goals to follow up the three she had against Altmar-Parish-Williamstown earlier in the week.
