IAC GIRLS SOCCER: TIOGA DROPS DIVISION PLAYOFF HEARTBREAKER TO O-M (October 15, 2026)

By TIM TAYLOR
Valley Sports Report
TIOGA CENTER — The Tioga girls soccer team battled Odessa-Montour down to the final seconds before the Grizzlies prevailed, 3-2, in an IAC Small School South playoff here Thursday evening.

“This game lived up to its billing, just a well-played high-stakes playoff soccer game under the lights on a cool fall night on the turf of Haggerty field,” Tioga coach Jim Walsh said.

“The game was a back-and-forth affair that unfortunately ended up going O-M's way. I give them a lot of credit, especially their defense — often overlooked because of their high-powered offense featuring star Leah Antes and their cast of supporting offensive players.

“What a heartbreak,” added Walsh. “Look at their faces. That's all-out effort, and again, you can tell by the way they reacted. What a game though. They're a good team. The way they dish the ball inside is phenomenal.

“Our game plan was to stop Leah Antes, and it pretty much worked. We had Kaylah (Nelson), our top defender, pretty much shadowing her the whole game, but she's so good. She's able to, even with that, she's able to dish the ball nicely.”

The Tigers took a corner kick opportunity with 14 seconds remaining in the contest, but were unable to convert the opportunity as time expired.

Tioga stepped onto the pitch ready to play and grabbed the early lead when Natalie Kemp took a through-ball from Grace Howey and put it in the back of the net at 36:41 for a 1-0 advantage.

O-M missed four shots over the next 12 minutes, then the Tigers got the first of two corner kick attempts, but were unsuccessful.

The Grizzlies would miss another shot at 18:47, but finally tied the score at 18:02 on an Evvie Zinger goal.

Odessa had an opportunity to take the lead at 17:26, but Tioga goalkeeper Marcy Moniz made a nice save.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, not long after, Moniz tangled with the Grizzlies’ Leah Antes at a spot which appeared to be just outside the penalty box after deflecting an O-M shot toward Antes. Moniz dove for the ball and hit Antes in the leg. Antes, who was spinning around and was attempting to kick the ball, fell to the turf. An official awarded Antes a penalty kick and she blasted a shot to the right of a diving Moniz to give the visitors a 2-1 edge with 16:52 on the clock.

Walsh was not happy about the PK.

“I hate to see that in soccer,” he said. “I like the game settled on the field, you know, both are going for the ball. They call a penalty kick on Marcy, and we got number 6, Leah Antes.

“But, you know, the girls should be proud, man. I'm proud of the girls. What a heartbreaker. They warmed up so hard, they practiced so hard. Really wanted it not to be. That's the way the game goes.”

Antes almost made it a two-goal lead at 14:32, but hit the upright.

The defenses took over and the half would end without further scoring.

Meanwhile, contributed to the win in other ways.

“She still did just enough damage, scoring a PK goal and getting an assist — she is very adept at making soft passes into the box for her teammates to score,” said Walsh.

The Grizzlies had two opportunities to score off a corner kick early in the second half, the second being denied by a leaping save from Moniz.

With 35:52 on the clock, Howey hooked up with Kilmer to tie things up at 2-2.

The deadlock would not last long, however, as Avery Nolan scored off a feed from Antes at 34:24 for a 3-2 lead.

With just over 31 minutes to go, Amelia Toomey denied Zinger a breakaway opportunity that could have doubled the score.

Tioga missed wide right and over the crossbar just a couple minutes before and after that play, then O-M goalkeeper Brook Burns blocked a shot by Howey with 23:13 to go.

About 1 ½ minutes later, Zinger missed wide left on a corner kick and a couple minutes after that Moniz denied the Grizzlies another chance to extend the lead

O-M stayed on the attack, but were unsuccessful on four shots in a three-minute span, but the Grizzlies were able to hold Tioga at bay.

The Tigers put some pressure on the O-M defense a trio of times in the final minutes and Tioga’s best scoring chance during that time was denied when Burns came out of the goal to make a sliding block with 3:51 to play.

“They have some fast defenders that were fairly able to keep pace with our speedster, Natalie Kemp, usually by delay tactics — getting to the ball and kicking it out of bounds so they could reset their defensive alignment,” Walsh said. “And for the second time in as many tries they were able to completely shut out our leading scorer, Grace Howey.”

It was the sixth consecutive win for the Grizzlies, who improved to 11-5.

O-M held an 18-10 advantage in shots and had six corner kicks to two for Tioga.

The Grizzlies clearly knew what to do to defend against the Tigers’ quickness up front.

“They had a strategy in that regard,” Walsh said. “Every time we had those rushes, they would delay it, they would kick it straight out of bounds, they'd reorganize, and we just couldn't penetrate. I will say too, two games in a row, they held Grace scoreless.

“I know that was their game plan, but they also keep us scoreless; they possess the ball very well. They did those delay tactics and then we couldn't, couldn't capitalize with the throw-ins. We didn't, we didn't get many corner kicks either.”

Moniz collected 10 saves for the Tigers and Burns had five.

Walsh had nothing but praise for his senior keeper.

“All season long she's been like that,” he said. “She's been phenomenal. She's a senior captain. She really inspired the girls tonight, got them organized because they had a modified football game, so it kind of threw things off.

“She's had a great, great career. Great hands, great movement, great leadership. She kept us in all year, in a lot of games.”

Odessa-Montour will face Southern Cayuga, ranked 12th in the state in Class C, for the IAC Small School championship on Saturday.

Tioga, seeded 11th for the Section IV Class C playoffs, will visit 6th-seeded Marathon on Tuesday for a 3:30 p.m. first round clash.

The Tigers fell to the Olympians in the season opener and Walsh is looking forward to the rematch.

“I'm thrilled about that because that was our first game of the year and we lost 1-0 against them,” he said. “First game, we weren't settled with positions and Amelia Toomey was out so, wow, I'm looking forward to that. They've had a good season. I know they've beat some teams that we lost to. They beat some teams way better than we did.”

Tioga, which had just one reserve on the bench against O-M, will have more players to face Marathon with.

“We brought up an 8th-grader who's a pretty prolific scorer, Charlotte Perry, and we got another 9th-grader up so that will help us offensively. That's another difference in the Marathon game. We do have a couple more personnel than the one sub.

——————

IN PHOTO 1: Tioga’s Natalie Kemp. IN TOP PHOTO: Tioga’s Marcy Moniz. … PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.

Print Friendly Version