By SPENCER BATES
ALLEGANY — The regular season has officially come to a close for the Allegany-Limestone girls soccer team.
And what better way to round it off than with an emphatic 4-1 victory over Jamestown at home.
The Gators, having finished with a 6-8-2 overall record, truly came together as a team late in the year according to coach Dale MacArthur. Unfortunately, the turnaround occurred on the back of some unfortunate circumstances — losing star midfielder Madison Honeck to a season-ending injury.
Losing its talisman in the middle of the field certainly alters the A-L team, MacArthur admitted. But, if there was a silver lining to be found, it was that the absence of Madison sparked a clear, full-fledged effort by her teammates to make up the significant load she had carried.
“We’d be a different team with her,” MacArthur said. “I think, in general, the kids have started to realize that when she was there, they kind of watched. Now, they have to do. And they’re doing. It’s little by little, we’re improving and getting better, and I’m just, I’m just real happy with them. I’m proud that they’ve seen that that’s a necessity, and then they’ve gone and tried to do it.”
The Gators rounded off the year 5-2 after the injury to Honeck and against the Red and Green, they dominated from just the jump. They took the lead in just the sixth minute as Kai Wojewoda-Ko tapped home after an initial shot was blocked by the Jamestown goalkeeper.
Two more goals were netted by the hosts in quick succession in the 24th and 26th minutes by Molly John and Kennedy Honeck, respectively. John found the back of the net after a free kick led to some confusion in the Jamestown penalty area. Meanwhile, Honeck was able to score by lobbing the goalkeeper from 25 yards out after a Jamestown goal kick went awry.
The dagger for A-L came in the 60th minute when, after a period that saw Jamestown put some offensive moves together, Logan Potter linked up with Wojewoda-Ko on a fast break that resulted in the former putting her stamp on the game.
However, while the offense was in a groove for the most part, MacArthur admitted there are things still to be worked on in defense. The Gators would have been able to spend even more time in Jamestown’s defensive third, but clearances out from the back consistently did not have the accuracy needed and thus Jamestown was able to launch attacks after taking possession.
“We’d always like to play it out rather than kick it out, but unfortunately, we don’t,” MacArthur said. “We don’t always do it that way, and some of our clearances aren’t really a clearance. So yeah, we’re going to talk about those things and try to continue to work on playing out of the back.”
Allegany-Limestone’s Logan Potter (27) fires past the Jamestown goalkeeper. Potter netted the fourth and final goal for the Gators in their win over the Red and Green. (Derek Gumtow)
In the 72nd minute, the Red and Green did manage to get on the scoreboard, breaking up the clean sheet, exposing another facet of his team’s game that MacArthur will be addressing prior to the postseason.
“You have to play (for 80 minutes) and we’ve been remiss by not playing for 80 minutes in about three games that we lost in the last three minutes,” MacArthur said. “We’re ahead for 77 minutes, or in the 77th minute we give up a tie or and then go into overtime and lose or it remains a tie. It’s got to be a big focus, and it’s got to be ever-present in their minds that it’s not over.”
Ultimately, MacArthur was pleased with the victory, considering he saw four goals scored by four different players. However, he noted there is plenty to be discussed, broken down and emphasized if his Gators want to make waves in the playoffs.
“(After you) play somebody for the first time (in a season), how did you do the second time? Did you improve? Did you play better?” MacArthur said. “I thought we did well in the first half. In the second half, I don’t know what happens sometimes. The last goal, I’m disappointed in that one. Sometimes we get up and we kind of lose focus. That’s what I think happened there. But overall, I thought we did some things that we worked on. Now, we got a few days to work on some more things (before the postseason).”
Allegany-Limestone will await the finalization of the Section 6 Class B bracket to find out what its next opponent will be.
