Stories by Chris Books of wellsvillesports.com
CUBA — Cloey Larabee is a workhorse. The Lady Rebels senior captain will do anything and everything possible to ensure that the offense gets going in a swift manner.
Although that wasn’t particularly the case when Cuba-Rushford took the field right after school for their Class C1 First Round battle with No. 10 Addison on Tuesday, there was fortunately still another 40 minutes of soccer left to play.
With the No. 7 seeds tangling with the Lady Knights in a tight, scoreless first half of battle, it was only a matter of time before the offenses started to click, as each squad registered a goal to create a new deadlock on the scoreboard that would remain frozen in place all the way down to the wire.
The latter of those two goals was scored by Addison, which allowed the Lady Rebels to serve up a response.
They looked to Larabee for that. And what a strike it was.
With time of the essence and overtime peaking around the corner, the Lady Rebels senior led one of their final rushes up the field against the Lady Knights. Upon entry into the offensive zone, Larabee supplied a tenacious cross to the front of the Addison net where her fellow senior, Brynn Lavery, met the ball with ease, taking one giant leap in the air to knock it home with nearly two minutes left in regulation to send Cuba-Rushford to the Quarterfinal round following what was a 2-1 victory.
“We had some really good chances early that we weren’t able to take advantage of,” said Lady Rebels coach Aaron Wight. “Thankfully, we stuck to it and battled, and eventually found the late goal that we needed. Addison has some pretty dangerous players, and I thought we did a decent job of containing them. We’ve had a handful of games just like this throughout the year. I think our past experiences helped us a lot down the stretch to be prepared for this today.”
It wouldn’t be until past the 10 minute mark in the second half when the glass was shattered on the scoring, with Cuba-Rushford (11-5-1) providing the first crack off the collection of a massive special teams goal. After a foul inside the Addison box against the Lady Knights, it would set up Larabee for her go-ahead, ice-breaking strike, sending her penalty kick straight to the lower left corner of the cage.
But the lead would not hold much longer following the score, as Addison responded quickly. Just over three minutes removed, at the 25:30 mark, the Lady Knights saw Ava Knowles take command of the offense, as she scored a big game-tying goal off a pass sent along by Kaylannah Ames.
Each team would remain frozen all the way towards the end of regulation, as a midfield battle for possession ensued leading up to what served as the game-winning goal for the Lady Rebels, as Larabee and Lavery put the finishing touches on a resilient finish for the No. 7 seeds with 2:17 left to play, locking up a spot in the Quarterfinal round this weekend in the process.
“Cloey plays so quick and plays so direct. She can really hurt you out of nowhere at times when you kind of forget about her. Brynn stepped up too with the header for the game-winner and she also helped draw the penalty for Cloey earlier on in the half.” Wight said.
The shots between each team were nearly identical when it was all said and done, with Addison claiming the 13-12 advantage over the Lady Rebels. But the victory belonged to Annaleece Melton in between the posts for the blue and white, making 12 saves.
Up next, Cuba-Rushford will now prepare for a road trip up north on Friday for Class C1 Quarterfinal action, as they battle the No. 2 Geneseo Lady Blue Devils at 6 p.m.
