CENTRAL NEW YORK – Even as it planted itself atop the state Class B rankings and racked up victory after victory, the Westhill boys soccer team seemed to know that only one victory, against one opponent, would count the most.
And it arrived Saturday at East Syracuse Minoa Stadium, with the top-seeded Warriors turning back the challenge of Skaneateles 2-1 to earn the Section III Class B championship.
That it was so close was hardly a surprise. Both regular-season meetings went this way, Westhill winning by that same 2-1 margin Sept. 24 and the two sides playing to a 0-0 draw a few weeks later.
Given this fact, any goal was a big deal, and the fact that the Warriors got one just 3:11 into the sectional final changed the game’s tenor.
Skaneateles committed a foul inside the 18-yard box and Westhill was awarded a penalty kick. Junior defender Jackson Goodness took it and fired the shot just past a diving Charles Carbonaro inside the right post.
“We practice these (penalty kicks) all the time and I knew I would make it,” said Goodness.
Even more important from the Warriors’ standpoint was that it doubled the margin to 2-0 near the midway point of the first half when Mason Franco put home a rebound after two different attempts off a free kick were turned back.
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Against a defense which has recorded 12 shutouts this season a two-goal deficit seemed massive, but the Lakers would get a series of set pieces throughout the game, only to get turned back.
Then, in the 55th minute, Skaneateles got on the board when Ian Thompson, denied on a point-blank attempt by Tom Hunt, regained the ball seconds later and fit it past Hunt inside the right post.
With ample time to pull even and remembering how Marcellus rallied past them late in the 2023 sectional Class B final, the Lakers put all its energy into its attempt to tie the game.
Most of the chances were easily turned back, but in the final minutes Thompson was just wide left on a close-up chance before Eric Holstein made a big clearance which allowed Westhill to burn most of the remaining clock.
Both easily made it through their sectional semifinals at Phoenix Tuesday night, starting with Westhill bashing those other Lakers from Cazenovia in a 5-1 decision.
Despite Cazenovia’s no. 4 seed and 15-3 record, Westhill quickly jumped on top, the Warriors not letting up until it landed a 3-0 halftime lead and then added to that margin late.
Holstein led the charge, scoring twice and tacking on assist. Single goals went to Goodness, Tom MacLachlan and Mariusz Sobotka, with Tim Cowin, Tom Pendergast and Max Cowin adding assists.
Then it was Skaneateles’ turn against no. 2 seed Lowville, who arrived with a 17-0-1 record but met defeat at the expense of a Lakers side who controlled matters from the outset on the way to a 3-0 victory.
Taking the game right to the Red Raiders, the Lakers built a 2-0 advantage by halftime thanks to Thompson’s pair of goals, and he added another for a hat trick in the second half. Twice, Sam Ryan earned assists, with Max Cerimelli also earning an assist.
This contrasted what Bishop Ludden had hoped for when it held the top seed in the sectional Class C playoffs and met defending champion Fabius-Pompey in last Wednesday’s semifinal at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
Having beat the Falcons twice in the regular season by 1-0 margins, the Gaelic Knights grabbed that same advantage in the first half here, but the difference was that F-P would turn it around.
Overcoming goals by Colden Sheen and Jack Catalano, the Falcons finally solved Ludden’s defense with a Jayden Kwasniewski goal and then, with just 40 seconds left in regulation, struck again on Gavin Campbell’s goal to forge a 2-2 tie.
When two overtime periods didn’t break the deadlock, it went to penalty kicks, giving a huge edge to F-P since it had gone through this similar pressure to get past Westmoreland/Orisakny in the quarterfinals.
Three rounds passed with both sides converting. Then, after the Falcons got it fourth kick, Brady Neuner stopped a Gaelic Knights shot and, moments later, Kwasniewski converted to win it.
As the only local boys soccer team left, Westhill meets the Section VII champion next Wednesday in the state Class B tournament regional round at Watertown High School, needing to win here an in a regional final next Saturday to get back to Middletown for the Nov. 16-17 state final four.
