No. 3 Ark/Can unseats top-seeded Lady Eagles from D1 throne, claim two big OT goals to howl toward Finals victory over Fillmore

Fillmore freshman Hope Russell, right, jousts with the Arkport/Canaseraga defense for the loose ball in the offensive zone during Thursday night’s Class D1 Finals matchup in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore sophomore Emma Beardsley (15) looks to send the ball down field while under pressure from the Arkport/Canaseraga defense during Thursday night’s Class D1 Finals matchup in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore junior Torann Wolfer (22) blocks the shot put on goal by the Arkport/Canaseraga attacker during Thursday night’s Class D1 Finals matchup in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore freshman Grace Russell (3) chases after the loose ball near midfield as the Arkport/Canaseraga defense races to contest during Thursday night’s Class D1 Finals matchup in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore junior Zoe Beardsley (18) prepares to send the ball down field while under pressure from the Arkport/Canaseraga defense during Thursday night’s Class D1 Finals matchup in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore sophomore Malory DeRock (16) races to the loose ball alongside the Arkport/Canaseraga defense near the sidelines during Thursday night’s Class D1 Finals matchup in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

FILLMORE — It’s been a long week for the Lady Eagles of Fillmore. The defending Class D1 champions have gone through a battle on the field, and off of it. So much of one that even head coach Jon Beardsley got emotional himself, recalling how much his team battled through an extraordinary amount of adversity all throughout the pandemic to get to the very end.

And it all started with the team being without one of their crucial senior leaders in the lineup, Shelby Beardsley.

“Missing Shelby took an emotional toll,” he said. “She gave us a call from home before each game to give us that pep talk to help get us going. Her being out for the first game was a little momentum boost for the kids, but tonight, there were some different situations going on where we needed her. We had some emotional times during the game, and it takes a lot out of the kids. It can take a lot out of a coach like me too. COVID sucks, I’ll just say that. No kid from either Arkport/Canaseraga or here in Fillmore should be put through that, ever. To another point, this was the chance to come get an outlet and we got 15 games out of it. A lot of different teams didn’t get that.”

All the adversity, the pep talks. It not only gave the Lady Eagles the composure and the grit, but it also provided them with the most luminous and competitive diamonds of them all - the will to win. That was how the top seeds fought all the way back through four separate instances of extra time to complete their come-from-behind victory over No. 4 Keshequa last round to move on.

Two days later, game number 15 arrived - the Class D1 title game. The final challenge was presented, and with it, came a chance to win it all in front of their home crowd for a second straight season with an immaculate record on the line one more time against another high-quality opponent: No. 3 Arkport/Canaseraga, a team that has not lost in nearly a month.

As expected, both teams put their legs to the test in what turned out to be a back-and-forth race up and down the field throughout the entire 80 minute segment of regulation. The question now was: Who still had more gas left in their tank?

All that was needed from the end of regulation to the game itself, was 20 more minutes. And in the first set of time, the Lady Wolves provided with a big response.

Arkport/Canaseraga provided a big tidal wave of momentum during the first 10 minute overtime period. With a steady and slight wind working toward their favor, they took the opportunity to hit their kicks from long range, as Maureen Stuckey and Julia Payne both delivered bombs from nearly 30 yards out on each side of the field in the Fillmore zone that both found each side of the Lady Eagles net, providing the power shift into their favor for the rest of the day, as they unseated last year’s champion at the Class D1 high table to become this year’s champion with a 2-1 edging in extra time.

“It was a tough game to figure out, and no team really got a flow to what was going on,” Beardsley said. “We did in the last overtime, we finally got a flow with three in the back, two up top and overloaded the midfield and we started to get it a little bit more. All the credit goes to Arkport/Canaseraga, they have kids that can really kick the ball. They have some solid pieces in the back that really made it hard for our girls to break through. Arkport/Canaseraga is another one of those teams year in, and year out that knows how to do things right. They had to dig extra deep, even though we went into another extra session again tonight.”

All three goals in the contest were scored in the two extra sessions of overtime that were required after both Arkport/Canaseraga and Fillmore both could not find the opening they needed to carve through the ice to break it open in the 80 minutes prior to. Albeit, there were plenty of chances that went around within a game that was mostly comprised of one offensive rush after another along with the occasional midfield battle between the two foes.

The first half saw most of the festivities heat up quickly, as each team picked up arguably their best chance in the first 40 minutes with the Lady Wolves connecting first with Julia Flaitz breaking away from the Lady Eagles (14-1) defense right at the top of the 18, putting the shot on goal to make Preslee Miller work for the hosts in black. The original stop was made, creating an additional rebound in the same swoop for Morgan Byer to deflect away herself.

Back into the other end, Fillmore a couple rushes later, saw Grace Russell launch a ball into the air toward the Arkport/Canaseraga goal just past the 18 on the far left side of the field, where the eventual save was made but nearly snuck across the line behind the Lady Wolves keeper and into the net.

More chances were collected as time wound down past the midway mark, with the Lady Wolves getting another chance to crack through from Emily Pfaff, whose shot from a Flaitz cross took a huge bounce off the top of the Fillmore crossbar, dropping back down to the front of the goal for the Lady Wolves to attempt to keep play going, but Miller was able to make the stop.

On the other side, the Lady Eagles had their biggest chance of the half come from Russell in the midst of a scrum in front, digging the ball free to send a beautifully lofted shot to the top right corner of the cage, but the ball took a double redirection off both the crossbar and side of the near post, and remained out of the net.

Miller would have to step back up to make another save for the Lady Eagles on one last breakaway of the half for Arkport/Canaseraga, as Flaitz alongside Jenna Mess led a 2-on-1 opportunity after a breakdown in the defensive zone. Mess kept the ball in her possession to attempt a shot, but Miller eyed the opportunity to slide toward the ball to cover before it was even let go.

Long story short: Beardsley said Miller’s efforts were by far her best of the season, and perhaps her career, filling in a role that was vacated after last season by one of, if not, the most decorated goalkeepers in Fillmore’s girls soccer program - Riley Voss.

“Preslee Miller, this was by far the best game of her career. She needed it. The two goals that went in, what can you do about those? Those were two goals that you couldn’t have done anything to prevent those. They were long shots that got to the upper corners, but she saved a couple of breakaways that could have made it a completely different game,” he said of his goalkeeper. “She had more saves tonight than the whole season combined. She’s a great goalie, and we’ve seen her in the training that she’s done since she was little and Riley Voss helped her out big time before she left, getting her prepared to fill in through the past couple of years. She finally had a game where she had to step up in goal.”

The same trend of battle continued on all through the second half play, with both teams getting even more chances applied on goal. The biggest chance came from the Lady Wolves off back-to-back corner kick opportunities, with their first stemming off a Flaitz pass over to the left side to Mess. Mess fired the shot toward the near post, but without hesitation, Miller dove across to make the stop, deflecting the ball out of play.

After regulation concluded, there were many chances. But no damage was dealt.

But in the first of two overtimes to be played, the Lady Wolves did not waste any time getting on the board. Just 2:20 into the frame, Maureen Stuckey put the three-seeds on the board from the near sidelines. Stopping nearly 25 yards away from the Fillmore cage, she used the wind to her advantage to sail a shot in toward the far post on the opposite side, where it ultimately found its way in on the side netting to finally crack through with a 1-0 lead at that point.

That wasn’t all.

With a foul being called against Fillmore on the opposite side of the field a few possessions later for the Lady Wolves, it would set up a direct kick from about 35 yards away. Julia Payne elected to take the kick, as she delivered a bullseye to the top right corner of the near post, an absolute beauty to give the visitors in white a large two-goal lead.

The ball was now in the Lady Wolves side of the court, as they assumed total control with just 10 minutes separating them from a Sectional title entering the last overtime period. Fillmore would not go down without a fight however, as they managed to end the shutout Arkport/Canaseraga quickly took control of with Sophia Templeton netting her 17th goal of the season, picking up a pass from Grace Russell upon entering the 18 to deliver an opposite side shot to the far post to make it a one-goal game with 5:23 left on the clock.

“Sophia is a special talent as a player, and you could see tonight the emotional toll of the world we live in. Two nights ago, she was walking off this field with her head in the clouds after a rough day, and she had to find a way through that,” said Beardsley. “Tonight, she came out in elation. Myself is emotionally drained from everything that has gone on this week. She was a trooper, and she kept battling through the a brilliant last five minutes of the game. She kept going, she kept the girls in it, and I asked them before the game that we needed to work just as hard as we did against Keshequa.”

But when it was all said and done, it was too late. Arkport/Canaseraga was able to hold off Fillmore’s late rally to capture the Class D1 championship at the final horn. Beardsley said it was another one of those games where the team couldn’t get a fully accurate read on the Lady Wolves.

“It was one of those games where we didn’t figure it out until eight minutes left in the game,” he said. “They were a tough team to get a read of tactically from our standpoint, and it was also one of those games physically, we just didn’t have the legs for after the marathon the other night with Keshequa. Arkport/Canaseraga comes in and puts in just as equal of an effort as they did, and we were just out of it mentally. There was not a lot of midfield play, both teams were up and down the field. We’ve played from six to six, and their legs were there which I was a little optimistic about at first, but it was still a different style of play we didn’t get experience from.”

Both teams were heavy-handed on the shots across all 100 minutes total that the Class D1 Final saw, as they combined to deliver a grand total of 33 shots on the offensive front, with the number one seeds taking a 21-12 advantage over Arkport/Canaseraga. Miller was a busy body in between the pipes all night, providing 10 solid saves.

For Fillmore, it’s just the second time since the inception of their new athletics complex behind the school, that they have fallen in defeat to their opposition. That began back during the 2016-17 school year. But Miller’s big effort for the Lady Eagles in goal was just one of many beacons the team hopes to have shine bright in the years to come, after starting just four seniors this season. The rest of the lineup? Mainly freshmen and sophomores.

Beardsley credits his coaching staff in keeping their soccer program replenished even after missing enormous pieces that have graduated over the years.

“It’s exciting. I’m a planner, I come into the season and see what the outlook is ahead two or three years from now,” he said. “Because we take pride in being a program that has all of their coaches in one spot for the season. They are all involved in the summer soccer programs every year. Everyone upstairs in the booth all help out with the special things that they do. There’s so many parts that go into this, that it’s a continuation if we can keep doing the things we’re doing, we’ll be right back here each time.”

It’s safe to say that the future of the youthful Lady Eagles is pretty bright. Just how bright exactly?

The Russell siblings: Hope and Grace Russell, who both have had incredible seasons in their first full season on the Varsity level as freshmen, combining for a whopping 42 goals on the offensive front. Grace sat atop the scoring leaderboard with a County-leading 23 goals this season to go with her 12 assists. Hope finished with 19 goals to go with seven assists. They are two of three Lady Eagles who finished in the top five in goals inside Allegany County this season, with Sophia Templeton entering the fray with 17 goals herself, enough for fourth overall, to go alongside her County-leading 14 assists.

Along with Preslee Miller, those are some of the faces that the team, which includes their seniors that will depart at the end of the school year - Shelby Beardsley, Morgan Byer, Harley Miller and Kirstin Frazier, welcomed wholeheartedly to a lineup that provided yet another sublime season of soccer.

Simply put. Beardsley said they all made each other better in what was a 14-1 season. A season they knew could have ended at any given moment.

“Every time I came out to talk with the kids, I told them that it could all end tomorrow and we just kept getting game after game to play, and we did absolutely everything we could to get there and we’re forever thankful for that. We like to win and that’s what we love to do the most every time we come out. Losing is not something that we ever look forward to, nor deal with,” he reflected. “And unfortunately when you go undefeated and then lose the last game, that’s something you don’t really experience. You have to experience that, but they’re amazing kids,

Beardsley added, “They feel for the four seniors. I said at the beginning of the year, and I’ll say that we’ve got a youthful group. We’re a pretty talented group and we had four seniors that became role players for us. They could have mailed the season in, the Kirstin Fraziers, the Harleys, the Morgans and Shelby, they put their arms out and showed the youth how special they can be. 14-1 and Sectional Finals for the third year in a row, County title six years in a row. We just continued on with our soccer tradition here, and they made it all happen.”