By TIM TAYLORValley Sports Report
OWEGO — The Waverly and Owego girls soccer teams split a pair of matches during the regular season, each team winning by a single goal.
The relatively new rivalry was renewed in the Section IV Class A semifinals here Friday evening and was scoreless for more than half of the first period until the River Hawks finally found the back of the net en route to a 3-0 victory.
“Owego's always a solid team,” said Waverly coach Tara Hogan. “We played them very early in the season, only beat them by one. They beat us by one a couple weeks ago, so we knew going into this that this was going to be a good competition.
“On top of that, it's one of those teams that knows us very well, and we know them very well.”
Elise Silvanic broke the deadlock at 14:36 when she received a cross from Ella Wade just inside the penalty box. Wade started the play when she deflected a Waverly pass, then Lilliana Pelifian collected the ball and passed to Wade. Wade took the ball along the sideline toward the corner then passed to Silvanic.
About 3 ½ minutes later, Owego made it 2-0 when Pelifian found the back of the net at 11:13. The 8th-grader moved the ball along the right sideline and fired a cross over a leaping Taylin Gonzalez and into the left side of the net.
The River Hawks almost scored late in the half when Ashlyn Dalton drilled a shot from 30 yards out. Gonzalez deflected the ball near the left post. The ball spun toward the goal, but Gonzalez made a diving grab to deny Owego another goal.
The match remained 2-0 for nearly 33 minutes until Dalton’s pass to Harper Williams went past Wiliams and off a Wolverines defender into the goal with 18:33 remaining on the clock. The goal was credited to Williams.
“We had a good start to both halves,” said Hogan. “The final piece of the play was trying to get the ball to our forwards. We found that we were usually our own worst enemies in this. We simply struggled to find our forwards in most games. “
The teams shared possession in each other’s end during the early minutes of the match with Owego taking long shots in the fifth and seventh minutes. Gonzalez saved the first and the second sailed wide right.
“I felt like we had a decent start,” Hogan said. “We were confident, we had good energy, had good movement, and then it kind of slowly fell apart. We tried something different, but kind of lost track of the ball and the player. We got too focused on where the ball was and not watching their players.
Waverly pressured twice, in the eighth and ninth minutes, but was unable to get a clean shot.
The River Hawks returned the favor in the 13th minute, but was unable to set up a shot, then missed wide left with another long attempt in the 18th minute.
Waverly responded with some solid pressure, but again, unable to get a shot.
The River Hawks attempted another long shot in the 21st minute, but again Gonzalez came away with a save.
Owego missed high in the 23rd minute, then the Wolverines put the pressure on again without a shot, then the home team finally broke the tie shortly afterward.
When the Wolverines’offense would put pressure into the Owego end, they just weren’t able to make their connections click to put the ball in the net against a strong defense and goalkeeper.
“It's something that we struggled with all season, just connecting the pass to our forwards,” Hogan said. “Whoever our forwards were in whatever spots, it was just hard to find them, whether it was trying to send them the ball or trying to get the ball to feet. We just couldn't connect it.”
The River Hawks offense controlled the momentum more often in the second half, despite managing just the one goal.
Owego took 17 shots to Waverly’s seven and held a 2-0 edge in corner kicks.
Gonzalez made a dozen saves in goal while the River Hawks’ Kendra Turshman had six.
Waverly finishes the season at 5-8-1.
The Wolverines lose a trio of seniors, but return several players.
“We have Makenzie Olmsted, we have Hannah Carpenter, and we have Ryleigh Judson, three starters,” Hogan said. “Starting captain Hannah Carpenter, who has shown so much growth in the last two years on this team. Starting senior Ryleigh Judson's movement, vision, and determination will be missed. Starting senior Makenzie Olmsted's grit, drive, and level of play will forever be remembered. Thank you to our seniors!
“There are still positives to take away with looking at the future of our program. We have a lot of young talent on this team and coming up from our modified program. Coach (Sadie) VanAllen and I always said how impressed we were with how these girls never gave up — in any game we played.
“We have a lot of juniors that are showing a lot of promise, and we do have younger girls that are stepping up. I know our modified program, because we don't have a JV team, our modified program's looking good. “It's very cyclical. You have years where you’ve got a bunch of really strong forwards and not as many great defenders, or you have a lot of great defenders and some younger forwards, so it's just finding what works every year.
“Overall, I'm still very happy with the season. We made it to sectional semifinals, qualified for it, and happy with how things turned out. I'm glad that we had a great season.”
Owego (11-2-1) faces Maine-Endwell (12-1) for the title on Thursday at Union-Endicott at 5:30 p.m.
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IN PHOTO 1: Waverly’s Ryleigh Judson. IN TOP PHOTO: Waverly’s Maci Wheeler. … PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
