Jack Grooms had a perfect description for what the Westhill boys soccer team has accomplished – namely, two consecutive Section III Class B championships.
“It’s awesome to go back-to-back,” said Grooms.
And Grooms was a primary factor in gaining that second straight sectional title, and 11th in program history, netting both goals, including the overtime game-winner, in the Warriors’ 2-1 victory over Cazenovia Monday night at Jamesville-DeWitt High School.
This was a rematch on two fronts. First, these were the same two teams that played in the 2016 sectional final that Westhill won by a 3-0 margin.
More directly, though, these teams had met in early October at the Sean Googin Sports Complex, where Cazenovia used a pair of goals late in regulation to rally and win 2-1, the only defeat the Warriors suffered in the regular season.
That more recent memory provided lots of motivation for Westhill, yet through most of the first half the Warriors found itself in a defensive mode against a Lakers side still in search of a first-ever sectional title.
In the 10th minute, Cazenovia earned a free kick, which Ryan Modzeleski sent from 30 yards out to the middle, where Joe Spires flicked it past Ryan Geer to put the Lakers in front 1-0.
Despite the goal, “our team never lost confidence,” said head coach Tom Etoll.
Not until late in the half did Westhill begin to probe with regularity against a tight Lakers defense, hurt by the fact that it was playing into a stiff breeze – which would be at the Warriors’ backs once the second half started.
Indeed, after intermission the Warriors spent much more time in Cazenovia’s end. Charlie Bolesh hit a point-blank header right into Thomas Bragg’s hands. Another close-up look midway through the half was denied by defender Sean McNerney when Bragg was out of position.
But with 10:41 to play, the breakthrough happened. David McPeak, working on the right side, passed the ball to the middle, where Grooms ripped it past Bragg for the tying goal.
Regulation ended at 1-1, and since Westhill won the coin toss going into the first 15-minute OT period, it chose to take the wind at its back again, proceeding to resume the pressure it had applied in the second half.
It led to a corner kick, started by Bo BenYehuda, that produced a mad scramble with several players on both sides trying to get to the ball. Finally, Grooms did so and, 4:33 into the extra period, put in the goal that secured a sectional championship.
And now it’s back to the state Class B tournament for the Warriors, who on Saturday face Section IV champion Oneonta in the regional final, with the winner advancing to the Nov. 11-12 state final four in Middletown.
