Photos and stories by CHRIS BROOKS, managing editor, wellsvillesports.com
WELLSVILLE — It has been six long years since the Lions of Wellsville have last tasted Sectional victory. Six years.
After a phenomenal finish to their regular season that saw them end with wins in six of their last eight games going into the big dance, the No. 6 seeds in Class B were in a stellar position to end that long wait.
They entered Wednesday night with a full head of steam, looking to deal major damage for the final time in front of their home fans in the Lion’s Den.
With No. 11 Penn Yan looking to strike while the iron was hot themselves, the Lions needed to be just as fast. Despite some early pressure from the Mustangs, they were able to ward it off with an early strike after the first 10-minute threshold, holding the advantage intact going into halftime.
Then, the action created a tenacious riptide across the final 40 minutes the evening would offer.
Wellsville surfed such a current with great success.
The gas pedal was punched straight down to the floor for sixth-seeded Wellsville, as they supplied three more goals against Penn Yan — two of them off the foot of Aiden Cowburn on a direct kick and a penalty kick to help officially seal the deal on the program’s first Sectional victory since the 2018 season, as they rolled past the visiting Mustangs with a 4-1 victory.
“Tonight was an exciting win. None of the boys on this team have ever won a Sectional soccer game,” said Lions coach Bethany Faulkner. “I think it took us a bit of time to adjust to Penn Yan’s quick speed of play, but once we found our momentum, we locked in. I’m proud of how we’re distributing the ball and just having contributions from everyone. These wins lately have been because of an overall team effort, and when that happens, they make things look easy.”
After Penn Yan issued some great chances at the Wellsville (9-4-4) early on, the Lions were able to shift the momentum in their favor with a direct kick from midfield fronting the latest rush. After the ball worked its way into the possession of Blake Kalkhof, his initial shot was saved by the Mustangs, but would create an available rebound for the next man up — that being Ty Vogel, who poked home the follow-up attempt to break the ice for the Lions at the 28:17 mark.
The lead would hold intact despite a fair amount of pressure from Penn Yan behind their takeover of the possession game, as the Lions defense was rewarded for their efforts with another goal in the second half to double their lead.
Recording it was Aiden Cowburn, who netted the first of his two markers nearly two minutes in on a surgical direct kick that pirouetted around a Mustangs wall in front of him, right to the far post and into the open section of the net for a 2-0 advantage.
Not long after that extension was provided, Penn Yan found a way to end Wellsville’s shutout bid at the 34:26 mark behind a masterful placement of a kick outside 30 yards from the Lions cage. A shot was airmailed directly on goal by Carter MacKerchar, who witnessed the ball sail straight over Gavin Haggerty and into the net to help carve their deficit right in half.
But the response that Wellsville came up with was even quicker than the last, as Nick Germain-Tardieu aided in regaining the two-goal advantage for the No. 6 seeds once again by following up a hard shot on the Penn Yan net by Cowburn, as he raced in and collected the loose rebound on the doorstep, firing it right to the top shelf for a 3-1 lead through the first 10 minutes of the second half.
The scoring from the opening stages would eventually rescind in favor of another midfield battle for possession, with each defense clearing the zone and the goalkeepers stepping up to make some key stops along the way.
If there was any more insurance to add, Cowburn would have it with nine minutes left in the game, as he elected to take a penalty kick that he simply did not miss, blistering it right down the middle of the frame to officially put a wrap on the program’s first Sectional victory in six years.
When the battle reached its conclusion, Wellsville went on to outshoot Penn Yan by an 11-6 final count. In net, the victory belonged to Gavin Haggerty, who made five saves out of six possible to record the Lions victory.
The Class B Quarterfinal round now awaits the No. 6 Lions, as they prepare to hit the road Saturday night for a 6 p.m. contest up north against No. 3 LeRoy/Caledonia-Mumford.
Class C1 First Round
No. 11 Cuba-Rushford 1, No. 6 Canisteo-Greenwood 0
CANISTEO — Cuba-Rushford and Canisteo-Greenwood have already met once this year, and that battle was won ferociously by the Chargers following a tremendous second half uproar.
That was nearly a month ago, but Rebels head coach Rob Wight says that since that particular contest, his defending Class C2 champions have become a completely different team.
“We just wanted the guys to understand that we are a very different team now,” he said. “We were still trying to figure ourselves out for that game, and coming into tonight, we felt like we had it sorted. With Finn moving into goal and six other players starting in a new position. Our game plan was a totally different approach from that previous game and the guys since then have done exactly what we asked of them.”
When the brackets aligned in the upper echelon of the two Class C realms, the Rebels would get their chance to return to the proving grounds in the Canisteo Valley to settle the score once and for all.
Like the previous battle, both teams zeroed in on a long and grueling chess match for possession. With time quickly being erased off the board after every passing measure, there was absolutely no more either side could waste.
As opposed to the five goals the Chargers recorded — four of them in the second half, in their previous meeting at the end of September, this final go-around would see just one find the back of the net.
And it turned out to be a goal of redemption.
The defending Class C2 champion Rebels were ready for their title defense come Wednesday night, as they scored the game’s lone goal just past the 10-minute mark of the second half to capture their first and only lead of the Chargers during their two head-to-head battles this year.
This one, cementing in place to earn them a trip to the Quarterfinal round this weekend, as No. 11 Cuba-Rushford finished off the 1-0 upset of No. 6 Canisteo-Greenwood.
“I’m proud of my guys, every player did their job tonight. We’ve had a tough stretch lately and it would have been easy to mail it in against a team that had already handled us 5-0 earlier in the year,” Wight said. “We buckled in and executed the game plan perfectly. I can’t say enough about Finn Ricketts playing in goal for just the second time in his career. He made some huge saves to keep us in it. This was the first time since August that we were able to have three straight practices between games, so we really shook things up and the players did a great job handling the changes.”
Carter Brown was the lucky recipient of what served as Cuba-Rushford’s (8-8-1) game-winning goal with 25:35 left in the game, as he provided a perfect connection on a ball sent along by Robert Childs.
The goal for the Rebels was one of 13 shots they applied against Canisteo-Greenwood, as they were narrowly outshot by the Chargers by a 14-13 count.
All 13 of those shots faced by Finn Ricketts in between the posts received stops, as he recorded a massive shutout for the No. 11 seeds in just his second game in goal.
A familiar foe now sits on the other side in the Class C1 Quarterfinal round coming up on Saturday for the Rebels — No. 2 Geneseo, the same Blue Devils team they knocked off in last year’s Class C2 Finals to claim the brick for the very first time ever.
Wight said a game of this magnitude is exactly what he expected to have.
“That is what makes Sectionals so much fun. Honestly with the group of guys I have, I’m optimistic that we can compete with anybody,” he said. “The hard work and focus they showed tonight is all you can ask for as a coach. Either way, this is what you want, come this time of year. To be playing with the big teams and the local powerhouses with history behind them.”
First kick between the Rebels and Blue Devils is set for a 6 p.m. start in Geneseo.
