Each of the last three seasons, the Skaneateles boys soccer team had its season ended by Westhill in the Section III Class B playoffs – and then had to watch the Warriors claim the championship banner, plus a state title in 2019.
With some dramatic flair, the Lakers finally reclaimed the top spot Monday night at Jamesville-DeWitt, edging Westhill 2-1 as it answered the Warriors’ lone goal late in the second half with one from Brendan Powers less than 90 seconds later.
“We came through adversity and battled as a team,” said Powers.
What made this particular championship remarkable was the relative youth of the Lakers’ roster (just three seniors) and the way it had struggled at the end of the regular season, dropping games to Cazenovia and CBA before the playoffs.
Head coach Aaron Moss said that his players “went back to basics” before the playoffs started, and “put it all together at the right time”. He wasn’t kidding.
After a first-round romp over Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, Skaneateles upended no. 3 seed Marcellus and no. 2 seed Clinton in the next two rounds, each of them 1-0 shutouts. And this led to the title game against Westhill, where again the defense stood out.
All through the game, the Lakers’ back line of Alex Arefyev, Will Pinckney, Andrew Moss and Gavin Cheney limited Westhill’s ability to generate good shots, quite unlike their 3-2 defeat to the Warriors in September.
“They (the defenders) really communicate and work well with each other,” said Aaron Moss.
On the other end, the Lakers were mostly kept quiet during an evenly played, 0-0 first half, and continued to probe in the second half until, in the 56th minute, a free kick brought the game to life.
From 35 yards out, Arefyev drilled a low shot through the wind that eluded Westhill goalie Ian Prebish and crashed into the top of the net, putting Skaneateles in front 1-0.
Undaunted by this, the Warriors picked up its pressure late. With 8:20 left, Andrew Neumann made a tremendous diving save on a one-timed shot, and for a moment it looked like a game-saver.
But with 4:23 to play, a wild scramble in front of the Lakers’ net led to a handball from a Skaneateles player and a penalty kick that the Warriors’ Bo BenYehuda converted to tie it, 1-1.
At that moment, said Powers, his team’s mental fortitude was challenged. “All year long we were saying that the most important muscle is our brain,” he said.
So despite the stressful situation, the Lakers immediately pushed to break the tie. And with 3:05 left, when a shot from Owen Cheny could not get handled by Prebish, Powers slid the rebound just inside the right post.
Hanging on from there, Skaneateles celebrated its first sectional title since 2015, and immediately turned its attention to the state tournament, where on Saturday it faces Section IV champion Oneonta in the regional final at Liverpool High School Stadium.
