By SPENCER BATES
ALLEGANY — Allegany-Limestone girls soccer head coach Dale MacArthur, by his own admission, noted his team was a bit more than disjointed for a significant portion of its 4-0 win over No. 12 seed Newfane in the Section 6 Class B First Round.
Passes coming out of the defense were, at times, dangerous and lacking conviction. Forward movements were mainly just foot races after long balls. Possession was also relatively non-existent.
Granted, Newfane found itself following a similar script.
So, at the half, with the scores still knotted up at 0-0, MacArthur found himself asking his players the hard questions.
“I just asked them at halftime, if (what we were doing had) any resemblance at all to what we’ve been working on in practice, and the resounding answer was no,” MacArthur said. “You can’t just lay the ball out there somewhere, because (Newfane) is going to long-ball everything. The way you stop that is you connect passes so that they don’t get the ball, and I thought, in the second half, we did a much better job of that.”
And to his credit, his players responded.
Just about every aspect of the No. 5 seed Gators’ game in the second half improved in quality. The defense was more sure of itself, working with the midfield to start offensive moves forward that were far more under control and incisive. And, perhaps most importantly, the offense was clinical.
“I think the defenders and everybody performed in the second half how we’ve been practicing,” MacArthur said. “ I don’t know how we get out of joint. It’s interesting. We practice something, then we go on the field, and it’s like we decided to do something entirely different. That’s what happened tonight.”
Allegany-Limestone’s Kendall Lemon (17) looks to bring the ball out of defense while under pressure from Newfane. (Spencer Bates)
Kai Wojewoda-Ko got the scoring underway for A-L, after corralling an initially saved shot over the goal line. But that was only the start of her incredible night on the front lines. She found the net once again in the 73rd minute, but also dished out the assist on each of Kennedy Honeck’s two goals of the night.
Early in the season, MacArthur had noted that Wojewoda-Ko still had some things to learn and some chemistry to build with her teammates if she was going to be an effective option up top. Since then, the improvement has been substantial.
“She was finding her way at first, and now she knows where she belongs,” MacArthur said. “She works hard and she comes back for the ball, which is hard to get a forward to do sometimes, because they always want to go (forward). She’s starting to do more of that, as are the other two forwards. We’re all working on that together, but she’s a little older, a little more experienced, so she’s come to understand that a little bit sooner.”
The win will wind up looking comfortable on paper for A-L as it now moves on to the quarterfinals of the Class B tournament. But MacArthur knows that at this point in the season, his players cannot get comfortable with only playing for 40 minutes. A full effort will be needed if the Gators want to claim postseason glory.
“If we didn’t learn from tonight, then I don’t know,” MacArthur said. “(But the second half) should be a confidence builder (for the rest of the playoffs.)”
Allegany-Limestone will hit the r
