ONE MORE DAY: Colombo’s penalty kick propels Fillmore to Class D State Finals, defeating Section VII’s Chazy after scoreless tie, will face Section IX’s Mount Academy for the gold
MIDDLETOWN — Four hours away, a return ticket to the Class D State Final Four was in the midst of being punched for the Eagles of Fillmore.
To say Saturday was a long day at the office, would be an understatement. With the game originally planned to start earlier in the afternoon, Fillmore would have to wait seven more hours before they took the field due to the rain causing inclement conditions on the grass confines of Twin Towers Middle School.
The grass was traded in for turf at Faller Field. And after a long day of waiting for their turn to take center stage, it was go time for the final weekend of the Jamie Mullen era for the Eagles. The team was two steps away from unravelling one of the biggest fairytales stories ever told in the local scene.
Their Semifinal foe was a familiar one to the program — Chazy, a boys soccer powerhouse from Section VII. The two teams have met twice before in the State Tournament, the last being 16 years ago when Chazy defeated Fillmore to ride the wave toward becoming State Champions that season, in 2005.
Now the hope for the Eagles was to turn the tables, and ride a wave of their own.
Throughout the night under the lights, both Fillmore and Chazy went back and forth across the midfield, garnering chance after chance. But both netminders provided stout performances, ultimately resulting in a shutout for each of them after every single period needed to break the tie was used up.
After the scoreless tie was declared, a first for Fillmore this season, the advancement stage now came into play — penalty kicks. It’s a session that’s been known to make or break teams.
Both teams would exchange pleasantries one after another in the penalty kicking round until the magic number of six approached coming down the stretch. With the scored tied at five, an unlikely hero arose.
Luke Colombo, Fillmore’s goalkeeper.
After taking part in recording what was his fourth shutout of the postseason, he would then take his chance on the opposite side of the net — in front of it, becoming Fillmore’s sixth and final shooter. Without hesitation, the Eagles keeper sent his ball straight to the top shelf, sending the team into a craze to end the game, while also officially sending them to the Class D State Finals on Sunday with a 6-5 victory over Chazy in penalty kicks.
“It was an incredible effort by the guys tonight, and I am so proud of them,” said Eagles coach Jamie Mullen. “It was a physical battle out there, and we had guys banged up all over the field, but they just kept coming back for more. We played incredible defense the whole night, and we had our fair share of high quality chances on offense. We couldn’t seem to get the ball through the back of the net. I give a ton of credit to Chazy, they were a good team who fought hard until the end.”
To couple with his game-winning penalty kick, Colombo would record eight saves off of 14 Chazy shots to help preserve the shutout for the Eagles (19-2-1), while the offense in turn outshot the Section VII power by an 18-14 count. In the penalty kick round, Matt Majoros, Layton Sanasith, Zach Sisson, Mitch Ward and Brent Zubikowski, all alongside Colombo, netted big conversions to power Fillmore’s advancing toward the final day of the season.
A perfect outing for Fillmore, while Colombo performed an incredible service during the penalty kick session to keep his team alive, stopping two big shots, including the last Chazy would apply, before helping set up his goal on the team’s final shot to send the Eagles into hysterics.
The Eagles have now earned the right to compete for the grandest prize of them all right back at Faller Field in Middletown, Sunday night, as they square off with Section IX’s Mount Academy for all the marbles on the table to determine this year’s Class D Champion in New York State.
“I am so proud of the boys. We’ve been working so hard for this all season long, and now we finally have the opportunity to go out and win a State Championship. Tomorrow has the opportunity to become something truly special for this program,” said Mullen.
