By SPENCER BATES
ALLEGANY — Last season, the Allegany-Limestone girls soccer team lost just two games.
Through three games of its 2025 campaign, they have already equalled that total after falling 2-0 to Pioneer in their home-opener.
But it wasn’t until late in the second half when the Panthers eventually broke open the scoring. The reality was that the majority of the game was much more even than the final scoreline suggests it was as both sides finished with five shots on target. It was a battle from start to finish, but as Gators coach Dale MacArthur noted, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“(Both of our losses) are non-league games, we play them to have hard games … that’s part of the whole process,” MacArthur said. “Yeah, you’d like to win it, obviously. But I thought for a long period of time, we held our own with them. … Mostly these games show us what we need to keep working on. Certainly there were some things pointed out to us.”
The first half had no goals to speak of, but there were certainly highlights, particularly on the defensive end. Both the Gators and Panthers had opportunities with scoring potential, but the defenses remained staunch, bending but not breaking.
“We had some good recoveries to knock the ball out of play, or at least get it out of a dangerous situation,” MacArthur said. “We just have to learn that there are times it’s just better to kill the play, send it out of bounds, rather than try to play through it.”
Unfortunately for the Gators, as the game progressed, attacks became harder to come by. In their last game against Olean, MacArthur noted that his team’s decision-making in front of goal is an area they are focussing on. Against Pioneer, the decision-making was a split-second off in their build-up play. Getting the ball to the feet of Kennedy or Madison Honeck in order to get them a clean shot on goal was made difficult by the stingy Panthers back line.
MacArthur noted he was forced to slightly alter his team’s formation due to the pressure that Pioneer was bringing, which he said helped alleviate some of the delayed action.
“I think having two up top in the second half, enabled us to move up a level on the field,” MacArthur said. “They’ve got four back most of the time … so you don’t have a lot of time and room to move things around too much. Having two up top made a difference. We had a little bit more time, more opportunity, more more targets to play to, but you have to give (Pioneer) credit, they’re organized, they’re fast, and they do anything they can to get the ball.”
Allegany-Limestone’s Mackenzie Rhodes (22) sends a ball upfield against Pioneer. (Spencer Bates)
Unfortunately for A-L, after having played solid defense for 64 minutes, Pioneer found its breakthrough via Ella Spielvogel who got the benefit of some fortunate ricochets while driving on goal and lobbed the A-L goalkeeper who came to collect.
The visitors then put the game on ice, doubling up with just four minutes left to play, thanks to Samantha Youngs, who got a crucial poke that sent the ball into the back of the Gator net amidst a scrum following a Panther corner.
Still, down two goals, A-L was as vocal as ever, its leaders urging their team forward in search of something to take away from the game offensively. A late surge never fully formed, despite some chances from free kicks towards the end of regulation, but MacArthur was pleased with the level of fight he saw from his squad.
“You have to play all 80 minutes,” MacArthur said. “You see it all the time with teams, and you wonder, how do they keep going? They keep going because they’re competitors and they’re athletes, and they just want to do the best they can, regardless of what’s going on at that particular moment. If they keep trying, they’ve learned, or are learning that if you don’t give up, it’s not over.”
The Gators will have their next chance to bounce back into the win column on Sept. 8 when they host Southwestern for a CCAA Div. I game set to begin at 4:30 p.m.
