By PHIL BLACKWELL and ROB JONAS
Aggressive and productive at the start, the Niskayuna girls soccer team needed every bit of its defense to preserve the advantage in last Saturday’s Class AA regional final against Section III champion West Genesee.
The Silver Warriors pulled it off, hanging on to beat the Wildcats, 3-2, at Chittenango High School near Syracuse to advance to this weekend’s state final four in the Cortland/Homer area.
Just to reach this point, Niskayuna had to survive a tense shoot-out with Bethlehem in the Section II Class AA final after they played to a 0-0 draw.
The regional game was far different, as the Warriors and West Genesee combined for three goals before many fans had settled in under their umbrellas.
Ignoring the heavy rain, Niskayuna took a 1-0 advantage on junior Kara Sullivan’s goal 1:09 into the contest, but WG got even at the 4:51 mark when Colleen Bubnack banged a shot off the left post into the net.
Shaking that off, the Warriors went back in front, 2-1, when star junior Brooke Knowlton put home a rebound shot 6:09 into the game after Whitney Fary’s original shot was mishandled by WG goalie Melissa Stevens.
Both defenses finally settled down, and the scoring chances decreased for the rest of the first half as the rain’s intensity rarely let up.
Then Knowlton showed her magic touch. In the 31st minute, she took possession at midfield and tore past two Wildcat defenders, maintaining her dribble on the left side until she could deposit a hard shot past Stevens, her 40th goal of the season.
As it turned out, that would be the game-winner. All was quiet until the 56th minute, when defensive standout Alicia D’Allesandro left with a hand injury, not to return. This only made WG push more, and stopper Molly Hinton had to turn back more shots.
Amid all this, the Wildcats pulled within one when Ariel Kramer scored with 7:06 left in regulation. Many more chances would follow, but the Warriors held on. Hinton, Laura Plis, Kayla Rutherford and Erica Ottaviano combined with goalie Marie Mutryn to send the team forward.
This is Niskayuna’s first trip to the state final four since 2000. The Warriors (17-3-3) will play long-time Section V power Rochester Aquinas in the semifinals Friday at 2:30 at Homer High School. The winner moves down the road to SUNY Cortland to play in the title game Saturday at 3:30.
Sabres battle elements to beat Salmon River
The Schalmont girls soccer team is headed to the state class B semifinals for the first time after knocking off Section X champion Salmon River 4-0 on a cold, rainy Saturday at SUNY Potsdam.
It rained the whole 80 minutes, and it was cold, but I’ve got to give the girls a lot of credit. They played a great game, said Schalmont coach Angelo Caschera.
Cayla Volans and Amanda Potter scored first-half goals to give the Sabres (19-3) a 2-0 halftime lead. Lisa Tarquino tallied less than one minute into the second half, and Jessica Strang added a goal with 12 minutes left to seal the victory.
It’s the furthest the girls soccer team has advanced in the playoffs. Schalmont has appeared in the Sectional semifinals since 2000 as a class A school, but only won the title once during that time span.
`If we were an A school (this year), I think we would have done the same thing,` said Caschera. `These girls are focused. They don’t want to stop playing.`
Schalmont’s next task is facing Section V champion Livonia in Friday’s state semifinals at SUNY Cortland.
`Everybody I’ve talked to said it’s a good team like us,` Caschera said. `At this point, it doesn’t matter who’s up there. It’s going to be a tough game.“