During the last week of the regular season, area high school boys soccer teams tried to put things together so improve their seeding for the Section III playoffs.
Set to go for a third straight sectional Class B title, Westhill paid a visit to Chittenango last Tuesday night and required patience and defense to push past the Bears 1-0.
When Bo BenYehuda scored in the first half off a feed from Mack Etoll, the Warriors may have expected more, but did not produce anything against a stubborn Chittenango defense anchored by Noah Schnauffer, who made 12 saves.
Thus, Westhill had to protect its slim margin – which it did, the back line put on the spot and performing well as it held the Bears to just one shot all night.
That same night, Marcellus found itself at Hyatt Stadium taking on long-time rival Skaneateles, and a tense second half saw the Mustangs get on the board, yet still lose 2-1 to the Lakers.
Brody Shanahan’s goal, assisted by David Bosak, had Marcellus in position, yet it could not improve on that total and, for the most part, had to defend its own net.
Dan Balman stopped 13 of the 15 shots Skaneateles took, with goals by Sam Gajdo and Will Pinckney making the difference for the Lakers as Thomas Reed and Landon Hellwig had the assists.
Making a nice recovery on Friday, Marcellus shut out Clinton 3-0, and Bosak was again tough to stop, scoring twice and assisting on Ryan Moses’ goal as Moses assisted on one of Bosak’s tallies. Brody Shanahan, Cory Cangemi and Dan Balman combined to stop all 14 of Clinton’s shots.
All of this would result in Westhill getting the no. 3 seed in the sectional Class B bracket and a first-round game Wednesday against no. 14 seed Sherburne-Earville, while Marcellus owns the no. 7 seed and hosts no. 10 seed Lowville that same night.
Bishop Ludden was quite busy, starting on Oct. 7 when the Gaelic Knights managed to forge a 0-0 draw with Bishop Grimes.
The state Class C no. 11-ranked Cobras found itself stifled by Ludden’s hard-nosed defense throughout 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime. Josh Bianchi stopped all eight Grimes shots he faced.
A day later, Ludden shut out Faith Heritage 3-0, getting away in the second half thanks to Michael Gaughan and Connor Catalano each earning one goal and one assist. Liam Casey added a goal and Jack Moen picked up an assist.
Wednesday’s game with Tully was Ludden’s third in four days, but it proved the most impressive yet for the Gaelic Knights, who ran all over the Black Knights’ defense in the second half of a 6-1 victory.
After going in front 2-1 in the first 40 minutes, Ludden got away thanks to twin hat tricks as Catalano notched three goals and one assist and Axel Rivera had his best varsity game yet, netting the other three Gaelic Knights goals. Gaughan also picked up an assist.
And the regular season ended Saturday with a rematch against Faith Heritage that saw Ludden top the Saints again, this time 2-1 thanks to Catalano’s pair of second-half goals that negated one from the Saints’ Noah Singh.
Given the no. 8 seed in the sectional Class C playoffs, Ludden needs to get past no. 9 seed Waterville on Wednesday night if it wants a likely opportunity to topple top seed Cooperstown (who has its own first-round match with Otselic Valley) in the quarterfinals.
West Genesee, whose season of promise included a rare sweep of Fayetteville-Manlius, had some late stumbles, including last Tuesday night’s 2-1 defeat to Corcoran.
Then the Wildcats faced Nottingham on Thursday night, with the Wildcats determined to get retiring head coach Andy Hazeltine his 300th career victory.
The Wildcats denied it to them, though, earning a 1-1 draw. Ricky Francisco scored just 10:22 into the game, and that lead held up for a long while until Sailo Lian answered with less than three minutes left in regulation. Neither side could break the tie in overtime.
Even with a 4-10-2 overall record, WG sneaked into the sectional Class AA playoffs as the no. 7 seed, and will attempt to avenge a pair of regular-season defeats to no. 2 seed Liverpool in Thursday night’s quarterfinal at 7 p.m.
Jordan-Elbridge lost, 3-2, to Cato-Meridian on Thursday. Mike Meyer and Kevin Chiaramonte had goals, with Owen Barrigar and Ricky Hill earning assists. Keegan Ferris had 10 saves, but the Blue Devils won with two goals and one assist from Jacob Alberts.
In Saturday’s action, the Eagles put away Onondaga 5-2, led by Meyer’s three-goal hat trick. Barrigar had one goal and one assist, with Riordan Parker also scoring. Chiaramonte, Ricky Hill, Deacon Hill and Cole Addabbo each got an assist.
