Livonia too much for A-L/Hinsdale in Class B subregional

Gators battle to 1-1 halftime tie before bowing to Bulldogs 4-1

GENESEO — The Allegany-Limestone/Hinsdale boys soccer team executed its game plan to near perfection.

For about 39 minutes and 20 seconds.

“We were going to give them shots,” A-L/Hinsdale coach Jon Luce said of mighty Livonia, a 16-1-1 juggernaut which entered the contest ranked No. 4 in New York State in Class B. “We were going to give them shots from 30 yards out; we were okay with that. (We were going to) limit their chances on the ends and limit their corner kick opportunities because their height advantage over most teams is pretty incredible.”

The Gators not only checked each of those boxes, they also struck first, taking a 1-0 lead on a Collin Coleman penalty kick with 13 minutes remaining in the first half. Valiant as the effort was, however, A-L/Hinsdale, fueled by star goalkeeper Donovan Booker, who made save after save to keep his team afloat, couldn’t quite sustain it against an opponent of Livonia’s caliber.

Lincoln Richardson scored with 41 seconds left in the half to make it a tie game at the break. Gavyn Phillips buried one from 20 yards out just 1:06 into the second stanza to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 advantage. And in the end, Livonia — the older, bigger and more polished outfit — was just too much for the Gators, securing a 4-1 triumph in a Class B subregional at Geneseo High School on Wednesday night.

Livonia, which controlled possession for much of the game, was scheduled to meet either Southampton (Section 11) or Chenango Forks (Section 4) in the Far West Regional on Saturday afternoon. This season featured a new playoff format in which 12 teams advanced to the state tournament, resulting in four subregional rounds.

Allegany-Limestone/Hinsdale, meanwhile, was left to reflect on another superb season, which included both a league and sectional title and a glittering final record of 15-3-2. But not before the Gators — even after falling behind and even after having to scrap their game plan in a desperate attempt to generate more offense down the stretch — had made sure to remain in the fight until the final horn.

“There’s no one that wanted to come out of the game; guys were asking to go into the game,” said Luce, whose team, four days earlier, had edged Lafayette for the Section 6 Class B title — one class above where it had been competing the last several years.

Nine minutes into the second half, A-L/Hinsdale was still hanging in there, down 2-1. “And then when they get that third goal, we have to make changes, so we change our formation a bit to try to get more of an offensive attack, which is gonna give us more vulnerability in the middle of the back end,” Luce said. “But it’s either we lose 2-1 or 4-1; it doesn’t really matter if you’re on the losing side of it, so we had to change. We were able to maybe get the ball forward a little bit more than we were in the first half, but we just couldn’t find those equalizers.”

Evan Strauss notched that third insurance goal off a feed from Richardson at the 31:14 mark of the second half. The senior midfielder tallied again off a rebound with 12:54 left to put the game out of reach.

“They’re a very talented team,” Luce said of the Bulldogs, the Section 5 Class B2 champion, which downed Penn Yan, 2-1, for the overall Class B crown. “They’re very good, disciplined with the ball, they could shoot really well. They just kind of overwhelm teams, which I thought we weathered for the majority of it, until we just couldn’t keep them out of the net (any longer).”

Though Booker and the A-L defense certainly tried.

The senior goalkeeper, who started as a sophomore when A-L made its run to the New York State Final Four in 2024, “stood on his head,” as they say in hockey, keeping Livonia off the scoreboard for nearly a half and piling up over 20 total saves to give the Gators a chance. A-L/Hinsdale knew it was going to be peppered with shots all night and was comfortable with that because of who it had in net.

Two years ago, A-L had played on this same field during its march to states and, due to the caliber of the team in front of him, had needed Booker only to make a couple saves “here and there.” And he did that. “Now coming into this year, he was going to need to make those incredible saves time after time, which was kind of our game plan all along,” Luce said. “We knew we had him behind us, so we’re gonna play to our strengths. We’re gonna give up shots, we knew that, but we know he’s gonna make those saves.

Added Luce of Booker, who’d surrendered only 14 goals and posted 11 shutouts in 19 games leading into Wednesday night: “He’s one of the main reasons we made it this far. The kids played really strong in front of him, we had some good possession and some good skill players ahead of him for most of the year, but we knew we could count on him on the back end of it.”

Yes, the Gators, which feature just two senior starters and have several sophomores and freshmen on the roster, fell short a trip to the Far West Regional, bowing to the more veteran-laden Livonia.

But even in doing so, they’d already ensured yet another standout season, securing their seventh sectional championship under Luce and becoming, as Luce noted, one of the state’s final 11 Class B teams still playing.

“It’s a regional, it’s your chance to put your mark on soccer in New York State,” he said. “Like I told the boys at the end of the season, I don’t think anybody picked us in the preseason, I don’t think anyone picked us going into the postseason that we were gonna be the team that’s gonna continue to be playing right up here until the end. So (I’m) super proud of the work that they put in all year long; not one complaint, they’re working hard every single game.

“I’m really proud of the way the season turned out for them.”

(Story courtesy of J.P. Butler as a special to the Olean Star)