Boys Soccer
AA – Semifinal time, as it is for everyone except for the C girls. Niskayuna will be taking on Shen, and Bethlehem will play Albany, both Thursday at Colonie. Nisky is coming off a 1-0 W over Shaker in quarters, a 1st half goal from Brenden Griffiths being the difference. Shen had a 3-0 W over Colonie in quarterfinals – 2 goals came off the boot of Drew Lewis. They’ve split their 2 meetings this year, each winning on the road. Shen took home a 3-1 W against Nisky on the 1st game of the season, September 4. Nisky evened it with a 1-0 W on October 9. In the other semifinal, Bethlehem will be taking on Albany. Bethlehem is coming in with a record of 15-0-2 and a 3-0 quarterfinal win over Ballston Spa. 3 Eagles scored a goal apiece, and it was their 11th shutout of the year – 6th in a row. The last time Bethlehem allowed a goal was on October 4! Albany has won a pair of sectional games leading up to this semifinal, 2-1 over Saratoga and a 1-1 tie with Guilderland that they took in PKs. They were down 1-0 in both games. They come in with a record of 10-2-4 and most importantly, they sport a kid on their roster named Hot Chu.
A – Mohon/Troy, Averill Park/South Glens Falls, both at Johnstown Thursday. Mohonasen comes in appearing to be a particularly deceiving #10 seed. Looking at their schedule, it looks like they’re an A playing mainly AAs all year. Their season record is far from stellar, but they come in sporting a pair of 1-0 sectional victories already, one against Lansingburgh and the other against Scotia-Glenville. Troy comes in the #3 seed, with a 13-2-1 record. They beat Queensbury 3-0 in quarters, 2 goals from Akrum Mezza. According to the Times Union rundown, they haven’t allowed a goal in more than a month – last one was September 22 in a 2-1 W over SGF. That’s 9 shutouts in a row! Our other semifinal: Averill Park comes in as an upstart 8 seed, playing in the same conference as the #10 Mohon. The TU has them at a record of 7-9, but they have a pair of 2-1 victories in sectionals so far. First against Amsterdam, then Saturday against the #1 Albany Academy. Actually, they have 3 2-1 wins in a row – they beat the aforementioned Mohon by that score in the last game of the regular season.
B – Broadalbin-Perth/Ichabod Crane, Coxsackie-Athens/Greenville – Thursday @ Queensbury. This should be interesting. Broadalbin (what up Mike Carney!) comes in with a record of 14-2-1, winning 2 previous sectional games by the scores of 8-0 and 5-0. They’ve outscored opponents 25-0 in the last 4 games, and their only 2 losses are to Scotia, the #2 seed in A that was upset over the weekend. This is a team that can put goals on the board in bunches – 80 goals on the season, 24 for Tucker Wilcox, 16 for Ben Bellandi, and 10 from Joe Zarecki. They’re ranked #8 in the state in B. And they’re the 4 seed. Ichabod Crane comes in as the #1 seed, ranked #3 in the state. So yes, this B semifinal is a battle between two teams ranked in the top 10 in the state. IC is 16-0-1, an early season tie to Schalmont being the only “blemish”. They have a pair of 4-0 wins to their sectional record, one against Johnstown (a team that Broadalbin just beat 7-0 a week prior) and the other against Tamarac. They’ve had 5 straight shutouts and only allowed one goal in the last month, and unlike any team I’ve mentioned yet, they do have a stud who leads them in scoring by a long shot. That would be Seth Scarano, leading the team and all of Section 2 with 38 goals. They’re outscoring opponents 108-4, and they’ve yet to give up multiple goals in a game. Over to our other semi: Coxsackie-Athens takes on Greenville, an in-season opponent. They were supposed to play each other twice – the only one documented on the TU was a 1-0 Coxsackie win early in the season. Coxsackie is the 7 seed, and they have a 2-0 1st round sectional win over Cairo-Durham, along with a PK quarterfinal win over #2 seed Schuylerville. Greenville comes in as the #3 seed, ranked #20 in the state, and they have a 3-0 W over Fonda along with a 2-1 W over Schalmont (the team that tied Ichabod Crane) so far in sectionals. Greenville is particularly bad at sending stuff into the Times Union – only half of their games in, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see they have a strong player in Marcel Dupuis. According to the state ranking paper, they’re 14-1-1!
C – Stillwater/Hoosick Falls, Maple Hill/Lake George – Wednesday @ Johnstown. Stillwater/Hoosick Falls appears to be the battle of the underdogs, at least according to seeding. Stillwater comes in as the 14 seed, at least according to what I’ve received. They seem to have won a good amount of games for that seeding though, so who knows. They beat Berlin 3-0 in the 1st round, and they followed it up with a 3-2 W over Greenwich in the quarters. They’re playing another in-season opponent, #7 seed Hoosick Falls. The only TU-documented result is a 2-0 Hoosick Falls victory in late September. They have won a pair of 2-1 games to get to this point, over #10 Voorheesville and #2 Galway, currently ranked #13 in the state. In our other semifinal, upset-minded #5 Maple Hill comes in winning a sectional game at both extremes – one blowout, and one shootout. They beat #12 BKW 4-0, then followed it up with a PK win over #4 Mekeel. They get to play the Warriors of Lake George, coming in with the #1 seed and ranked #5 in the state, a place they’ve grown accustomed to. They’re undefeated, sitting at 17-0. They beat Mechanicville 4-0 and Fort Plain 3-0 in a rare sectional back-to-back. Craig Keenan is a big scorer among other scorers on a formidable squad.
D – St. Johnsville/Northville, New Lebanon/Fort Ann – Wednesday @ Queensbury. St. Johnsville, the closest Section 2 school to my house! About a 20 minute drive for me, gotta love Ripepi’s and Cumby’s runs. Oh wait, we’re talking about soccer. They’re coming in with an 11-6 record and the #8 seed. They beat the #9 seed North Warren 4-3, then followed it off by knocking off #1 Loudonville Christian 3-2. Both of those games were won in OT. Expect a game with goals – St. J games average around 5 goals per game between the 2 teams. They played Northville once back on October 3 – didn’t end well for them. Northville beat them 6-0. Speaking of Northville, they’re the 4 seed, coming in with a record of 9-6-2 and ranked #16 in the state in D (the only state-ranked team in D, and one of 6 overall, to not have 10 wins). They’re coming into the semifinals off a 1-0 quarterfinal W over #5 Argyle. Kalob Russell put one through the pipes on a corner in the 1st OT, and that was just their 2nd 1-goal victory this year, now 2-5 on the season in 1 goal games. However, if the other time they played this year holds true, we can throw that stat out the window. In our other semi, New Lebanon comes in an unranked #3 seed and also 9-6-2. 12 of their 17 games have been shutouts – either way. They’ve shut out opponents 9 times, and they’ve been shut out 4 times. Yes, I know that equals 13 and I said 12 – played to a scoreless draw in their quarterfinal game against Bolton, and they won in PKs 4-2. Fort Ann comes in with a state ranking nearly as high as their sectional seeding. They’re quite a formidable 2 seed, ranked #3 in the state with a record of 13-3-1. Their quarterfinal win was a 4-1 decision over Hartford.
Best of luck to everybody – keep us updated with results!
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