PHOENIX – When the Marcellus boys soccer team ran to the bleachers Monday night at Phoenix to celebrate with family, friends and fellow students in the wake of its 3-2 victory over Skaneateles in the Section III Class B championship game, it proved a combination of chaotic joy and cathartic relief.
Gone was so much pain built up over 14 years since the last Mustangs sectional title earned in 2009. Also gone were the wounds accumulated by going 0-13-1 over its previous 14 games against the archrival Lakers.
Just as strong, if not stronger, for Marcellus was the satisfaction gained from bringing an end to Skaneateles’ remarkable post-season win streak that included three consecutive sectional and state titles in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
And the way it all unfolded only made it more special, if that was possible.
Twice, the Lakers led in this sectional final. Twice, the Mustangs answered. Then, with the score tied 2-2 and Skaneateles applying heavy pressure to go in front a third time, Marcellus turned it back – and then delivered a game-winner for the ages.
Jeff Lantry took the ball at midfield. Then he found Austin Raicht streaking down the left side and passed it to Raicht, who took it in stride and sped toward the net. The senior midfielder then powered a shot past Charles Carbonaro with 1:01 to play.
“We were prepared for this for a long time,” said Raicht. “We had to prove everyone was wrong about us, and we did it.”
Head coach Mark Sunheimer, who had spent his entire tenure chasing a sectional title and watching the likes of Westhill, and then Skaneateles, break his team’s hearts year after year, said the difference this time was his team’s mental approach.
And it had to be strong, given all the negative history with Skaneateles that included not just last year’s sectional final (a 2-0 defeat on this same Phoenix turf), but also a pair of regular-season defeats to the Lakers where key players like Lantry, Will Kershaw and goalie Ryan Stephens were not in the lineup.
Sunheimer said that his team’s comeback in a 4-3 win over Cazenovia late in September, when the team had a 3-5 record, turned the team’s season around and made it believe that it could handle any negative situation that came up, even against its greatest nemesis.
More adversity would come here, starting with a corner kick by Samuel Ryan late in the first half that caromed off a Marcellus player into the net for an own goal.
Then, after Mattias Ferrara tied it early in the second half, Marcellus fell behind again, 2-1, three minutes later on another corner kick by Ryan that Max Cerimelli headed into the top left corner.
Absorbing all this, the Mustangs maintained its patience and, with 19:11 left, Connor Ciota produced his team-best 12th goal, heading it home off a feed from Raicht, and evened it, 2-2, a tie that lasted until Lantry and Raicht brought Marcellus its long-awaited deliverance.
Great as the celebration was, there was still more soccer ahead for Marcellus, who will meet Section IV champion Chenango Forks Saturday in the regional final with a trip to the Nov. 11-12 state final four in Middletown at stake.
Only here the magic ran out, the Mustangs falling 3-2 to the Blue Devils in a game where Forks netted the only early goal and led 1-0, at the break, but roared in front early in the second half when Ferrara and Raicht each netted goals.
However, the Blue Devils took advantage of two late free kicks to both tie and pull out in front, and the Mustangs could not answer, ending a season that started out as a challenge, but ended up quite special.
