Lions control 1st half tempo, but resilience allows Eagles to mount and complete 2nd half comeback to record 3-1 Homecoming win

Wellsville senior Cody Costello (12) and Fillmore senior Carter Sisson, right, jockey for position to gain the loose ball during Saturday night’s contest in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Wellsville freshman Ty Vogel (11) celebrates with his teammates after scoring his first career Varsity goal during Saturday night’s road contest in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore junior Mitch Ward, off-center, races past the defense of Wellsville junior Gavan Dickerson (20) during Saturday night’s home contest in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Wellsville junior Asher Billings, left, and Fillmore sophomore Layton Sanasith (9) joust for position around the loose ball during Saturday night’s contest in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore sophomore Jack Cool (12) dribbles under pressure from the defense of Wellsville junior Aidan Riley (3) during Saturday night’s home contest in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

FILLMORE — If you pull out a copy of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and look up the word ‘resiliency’, it states that it is the ability to recover from or adjust easily to adversity or change.

That word was used quite a lot in perhaps the toughest and most physical battle on the soccer field this season between two storied rivals — Wellsville and Fillmore. It was safe to say that after the end of the night on Saturday, both foes left everything they had on the field.

It was also a tale of two halves, as the Lions dominated much of the first half play to get off and running against a stout Fillmore defense. When halftime approached, Eagles interim head coach Jarrett Vosburg offered his team an ultimatum for the second half.

“I just told the boys that at some point this season, if we want to go on and win a Sectional title this year, we have to overcome adversity,” he said. “We had to face it head on, and tonight was the night we had to do it in. Hopefully, it provides them with a bit of an eye-opener for the rest of the season, and not just the game tonight at hand.”

Trailing by one to the Lions at the half, the advice given to the Eagles. So much to the point where you could list the team’s second half effort as a new definition for resiliency.

Fillmore came out firing on all cylinders in time for the last 40 minute session of the night, as they made it all worthwhile with a number of chances on the Wellsville goal. Ultimately, the Eagles offense would shake their funk and return to their scoring ways with three unanswered goals led by Mitch Ward, Brent Zubikowski and Layton Sanasith, helping the hosts in black and green overcome a bountiful of adversity to finish off a 3-1 comeback victory over the Lions.

“Give the credit to Wellsville, we’ve known that they’re a great program, and they have been for years,” said Vosburg. “They always come here every year, and they fight tooth and nail right alongside us. They had our number in the first half, and they had us on our heels. They gave us one heck of a battle across all 80 minutes, but it’s a testament to how hard these guys are working. It’s great on Homecoming to come out in front of our own fans and give them a show.”

It wasn’t the ideal start for the Eagles to navigate through in the first half, but for Wellsville (4-4-1), it was more than enough to get the early jump. After an early midfield battle began to settle in between both squads, the Lions picked up their first big chance of the game to make some noise off a corner kick. Cody Costello would then fire the shot in on goal, and right to the massive scrum in front of the Fillmore cage.

The ball landed directly in the middle where a rising Ty Vogel sprung up to apply his head on the ball to knock it past Mike McCumiskey in the Eagles goal to give Wellsville the icebreaker, and for the Lions freshman, his first career Varsity goal inside the first 10 minutes of the contest.

The goal kept the Lions focused on keeping the pressure on Fillmore’s half of the field, doing just that across the remainder of the opening half to keep them shut down entering halftime with a one-goal lead.

But after a heart-to-heart between the coaches and players at halftime, the Eagles provided a changing of the guard in the second half. While the physical play continued to take over the field, it all came with momentum swings in their favor.

Even though the Eagles would miss a crucial penalty kick after a Wellsville handball, that opportunity would be used as fuel later on for Mitch Ward to find the back of the net, making up after his miss with his 20th goal of the season off a Deen Musaid-Omar assist that was redirected right to the feet of Ward, who tucked it away to tie the game at the midway point.

Fillmore would continue to keep control of play in their favor coming down the stretch, and as a result, Brent Zubikowski would provide the hosts with their first lead of the game stemming of a direct kick just outside of the Lions 18. After Eben Schilke initially started the opportunity, Zubikowski then followed with a laser in on goal, taking a redirection off a Wellsville body in front and past Logan Dunbar in goal to give the Eagles the lead with seven minutes left to play.

If there was a time to make sure their lead was cemented ever so much into the ground, their last would come with five minutes left to play from Layton Sanasith and his header off a Musaid-Omar corner kick. Sanasith rose up over the Wellsville defense in front, and applied the head on the ball while falling down to the ground, as the ball rolled in past Dunbar to give the Eagles all the room they needed to keep their lead in tact for good.

“We faced so much adversity tonight, and all the guys played their hearts out,” Vosburg said. “We were down our captain, Carter Sisson, in the second half, and it didn’t really show. They all worked their tails off to make this happen, and they did everything that we asked of them. I am so proud, and this is the toughest schedule that we’ve played in years. Some of those early games that we’ve played against, they are reminders of the tests that we were given to make us better. So far, it’s looking like we will be better off for it when the time comes down the road for Sectionals.”

The Eagles went on to outshoot the Lions by an 11-3 count, with Mike McCumiskey making two stops to secure Fillmore’s sixth straight victory. As for the Lions, Dunbar would conclude the evening with six saves of his own.

Both teams will return to the field Thursday night in a pair of 7 p.m. first kicks, with the Eagles stepping right back on their home grass to take on the Cuba-Rushford Rebels, while the Lions continue their road trip into the Jungle to visit Genesee Valley/Belfast.