CENTRAL NEW YORK – On a potentially historic Tuesday evening, two different West Genesee soccer teams sought their respective Section III Class AA championships, and both would get turned away.
On the boys side at Firebird Stadium in Phoenix, the Wildcats pushed Cicero-North Syracuse into overtime, only to suffer a 1-0 defeat when Dante Melfi scored late in the first OT.
At Chittenango High School, WG’s girls were the top seed, yet could not unseat Fayetteville-Manlius, who earned its fourth consecutive sectional title by a 2-0 margin.
The boys Wildcats had gone through plenty of drama to get this far, needing penalty kicks to edge past Liverpool in the quarterfinals and a second-half scoring surge to knock off no. 2 seed Utica Proctor in the semifinals.
C-NS had upended top seed and defending champion Fayetteville-Manlius in double overtime in its semifinal, and had not allowed a goal to WG in either of their two regular-season matches.
Most of the first half was spent in WG’s end, the Wildcats’ defense, led by Anthony Edgar, Chris Moser and Kyle Klaben, able to protect the net and goalie Anthony Augello making a series of stops.
Gradually, WG picked up pressure, and early in the second half Anthony Pontello had a couple of point-blank chances that missed the net, while the Wildcats’ other chances were swallowed up by a tough C-NS defense.
As the OT period got underway, C-NS again increased its pressure, with Melfi among many different forwards trying to create space and challenge Augello.
With 5:45 left in the period, Melfi positioned himself in front of the net When the ball bounded out to junior midfielder Hunter Lawless situated on the right side, Lawless quickly passed it Melfi to the middle.
The shot didn’t have a lot of power on it, but it flew past Augello, and WG’s season had ended with a 10-6-3 record. Augello, Moser and Pontello leads a strong group of departing seniors that includes Jadin Lyle, Tyler Wavercak and Casey Scharoun.
Meanwhile, at Chittenango the West Genesee girls arrived at its sectional final full of confidence, having handled Liverpool 4-1 in its semifinal on Oct. 26 and knowing it had beat F-M 3-0 the last time the two teams met in Camillus.
Here, though, the Wildcats met with frustration from the outset, initially finding it difficult to generate an attack, and then getting thwarted when it made a serious push late in the first half, several shots on net turned back by Hornets goalie Mackenzie Murphy.
Then, with 1:46 left, Morgan Goodman, F-M’s leading offensive threat, grabbed possession and, breaking free down the sideline, moved it past WG’s defenders before she fired a shot past Wildcats goalie Jenna Orr.
For a majority of the second half, it remained 1-0, WG staying within range as Julia Poissant took her turn in goal. But then Goodman again stepped up and, with 12:39 left, drew in the defense before passing it to Ashley Seidberg, who fired home the clinching goal.
Finishing at 11-5-2 overall, WG still has a fairly young roster. Just a handful of seniors graduate, including Eva Poissant and Gio Vigliotti, but a large cast returns in 2023, having already won an SCAC Metro division regular-season title and hungry for more.
