CENTRAL NEW YORK – No less than three area high school girls soccer teams found themselves tested in a big way during their appearances in the Sept. 7-8 Hall of Fame Tournament at Niskayuna.
One of them, Marcellus, went 1-0-1 there, but got an even bigger victory back home last Tuesday night when it beat its second main rival in less than a week, edging Skaneateles 2-1.
They had traded first-half goal, Lexie Fragnito converting for the Mustangs and Keating Morrissey converting for the Lakers off a feed from Lily Kennedy.
Mara Stanton, who finished with eight saves, did all she could to keep it even, but Fragnito broke the tie in the second half and, controlling the ball most of the time, Marcellus held on as Marielle Kennedy and Drew Johnson were credited with assists.
As if that wasn’t enough, Marcellus pulled off a third win over a neighboring opponent when, in a showdown of two defending sectional champions, it knocked off West Genesee 2-1 in overtime.
Prior to the OT, Cece Powell was kept off the scoreboard, but still had an impact as she briefly replaced an injured Tenly Baker in goal late in the first half and made some stops as Allie Kaup’s goal less than a minute before the break put her team in front 1-0.
Early in the second half, WG pushed and Maria Snyder scored to tie it. From there, though, Baker, who had returned to the game, kept thwarting the Wildcats, ultimately running her total to 11 saves.
Once they reached OT, all it took for Marcellus was having Corrine Aldrich, midway through the first extra Period, pass to the middle where Powell, at full speed, raced in and put the game-winner past Allie Poissant, who had made nine saves.
All this came after the Hall of Fame Tournament where the Mustangs were a featured attraction, partially due to long-time head cocah Laurie Updike’s induction into the New York State Girls Soccer Hall of Fame, but also because of the way it took apart rival Westhill 6-0 in its season opener earlier that week.
Against Section VI’s Lancaster, the Mustangs played to a 2-2 draw, but it was a good result given that the Legends are a Class AAA school and had jumped on Marcellus, leading 2-0 by halftime.
Aldrich and Fraginto, who both netted goals in the Westhill agme, did so in the second half to key the Marcellus comeback, and Baker was sensational, shutting out Lancaster late and running her total to 15 saves.
A 3-0 shutout of Washingtonville followed on Sunday, the Mustangs getting two more goals from Fragnito and another from Aldrich. Kennedy finished with an assist.
Back on Sept. 7, Westhill lost 2-1 to Washingtonville, from Long Island, all of the goals coming in the first half as Schuyler Auringer scored for the Warriors, the assist credited to Bella Gallardo.
Then Westhill rebounded Sunday to blank Section VI’s Iroquois 4-0, led by Kara Rosenberger, who scored twice and tacked on an assist to help the Warriors lead 3-0 by halftime. Auringer converted again, as did Allison Langham, with a single assist credited to Grace Stroman.
More surprising, though, was a 1-1 draw with Mexico last Tuesday night. Playing for the third time in four days, all Westhill could manage was Schuyler Auringer’s first-half goal, assisted by Alex Presley, which Allie Poissant answered for the Tigers in the second half. Ava Warchol preserved the tie by stopping 10 of the Warriors’ 11 shots.
Absorbing all this, Westhill rebounded on Saturday and, in its own game against Skaneateles, beat the Lakers 1-0. Rosenberger netted the game’s only goal and Sophia Lasher stopped all four shots she faced as Stanton, in defeat, had nine saves.
