A SATURDAY TO REMEMBER: Fillmore boys, girls soccer sweeps Class D1 titles for 2nd time in three seasons with triumphant shutouts at Houghton College, Warsaw

Written By Chris Brooks

HOUGHTON/WARSAW — When it comes to high school sports around the area, there are some schools that are highly regarded, and widely synonymous with a certain field of competition.


To name a few, for Bolivar-Richburg, it has been baseball and softball in the Spring, and wrestling when it gets bitterly cold. In Wellsville, basketball during the winter.

But for Fillmore, their specific area of expertise comes right before the snowfall — soccer. The two programs have put together one masterful season after another in recent years, fronted by two of Section V’s best to ever grace the sidelines. That being Jamie Mullen and Jon Beardsley.

Both teams this season would reach the Class D1 Finals. For the boys, it was their third straight trip to the big dance, and it was one that took an entire day and two different sites to finish. 24 hours ago, the Eagles came face-to-face with No. 5 Arkport/Canaseraga for the first time since their 1-0 season-opening defeat back in September.

It was a game on Friday at SUNY Geneseo that could not make it through the first half of play. As the downpouring rain continued to fall, the officiating crew deemed the playing grounds unplayable with overwhelming amounts of puddling water covering the surface. The game had been moved to the next day — the same day their counterparts in the Lady Eagles would take the field themselves in Warsaw for their Finals matchup against No. 2 Marion.

The stars were aligned. All that was left to connect them was a Saturday night of soccer in the win column.

For Fillmore boys soccer head coach Jamie Mullen, he admits that after Friday’s delayed title affair was pushed aside to the next day, he could not find a way to muster his energy.

“To be perfectly honest, I was completely gassed. Last night, I was so keyed up and high-strong. This morning, I crashed,” he said. “I told my wife Darice that I couldn’t possibly get enough energy to just move. I had the weirdest day of my life that consisted of carving a pumpkin, writing a eulogy for a beloved aunt that I’m supposed to give a eulogy to, and I had nothing left in me.”

Those 24 hours, for some, can feel like weeks, months or even years. But Mullen did not have to look very far to regain his energy. His primary source to syphon from fell on the lap of his Eagles team when they took the field at a more familiar location right close to home, on the confines of Burke Field at Houghton College just a five minute drive down the road.

The Eagles would not allow the rain to put a damper on their job at hand. With the clock restarted with 10:42 left in the opening half, they went straight to work. And although they kept pace with Arkport/Canaseraga for the majority of that time, it was a challenge that was successfully answered when halftime approached.

The new objective for the second half: Take it to another level.

Right from the start, Fillmore stomped down on the gas pedal and showed no signs of letting up on it against the Wolves. As a result, the goals soon followed.

The last 40 minutes was all the Eagles needed for the offense to come alive, as Brent Zubikowski and Deen Muzaid-Omar scored two big goals to break the ice against Arkport/Canaseraga, providing a large enough crack to distance themselves from the Wolves to take care of business, proving the delay was worth the wait by navigating through what was a perfect storm in Geneseo to become Class D1 champions for the second time in three years at Houghton College with a 2-0 shutout victory.

“You feel like the first one is never going to happen. That one was huge and of course, that’s old news now. But that was significant, and obviously, I’ve run out of time. I’m on my coaching deathbed. I’m spoiled, but I’m blessed to have such an incredible group of human beings,” Mullen said. “This tonight is special, because I didn’t want it to end. It’s so weird, and it might come with old age starting to set in, but it really wasn’t about winning hardware. I didn’t want to stop being with these guys. What they have become as far as human beings, and working hard for each other, is incredible.”

Mullen added that “We struggled two weeks ago putting this thing together, but we have kids all over the spectrum and they all became a family. It’s one of the most satisfying things.”

Perhaps the biggest turning point of the season for the Eagles (17-2) that allowed them to take their place at Section V’s high table, came near the beginning of the season. You’d have to flip the calendar all the way back to September 11 when Fillmore hosted Section VI power Allegany-Limestone in a game that saw the Gators hand the Eagles their biggest loss to date, shutting them out, 4-0 on a home field that the No. 2 seeds have dominated on in years past.

Since then, the team has won 15 straight, and Mullen credits that game which allowed his team to turn their season around.

“Anyone will tell you out of tragedy and disaster that you find yourself either quitting or you get better. We got smoked by Allegany-Limestone, and they pushed us around on our own field,” he said. “Since that night, we never let it happen again, and tonight is a great example. Arkport/Canaseraga came in here, and we did not put up with their physicality. That lesson was learned. I guess I should thank Allegany-Limestone for that.”

How exactly did Fillmore pull off the title clincher? By picking up where they left off in a rain-soaked game up north, about 40 minutes away in Geneseo. The pace was set between both the Wolves and Eagles through the first 30 minutes of play before the game was called off due to the poor field conditions, battling all across the midfield and the pools of water that lie upon it.

No chances found the back of the net however, setting up a scoreless tie to be continued when the two teams caught back up with one another down south the next night at Houghton College. It would remain as such going into the half, but the Eagles gained some momentum with a few chances on the Arkport/Canaseraga goal, including a Mitch Ward header off a Deen Muzaid-Omar corner that just missed the back of the net in the waning minutes.

It was a significant challenge for the Eagles to provide an answer for at restart, but Mullen said that his team fulfilled that.

“The big challenge was to get going again. We handled it better than they did, plain and simple,” the longtime Eagles coach said. “I saw it in their eyes last night. Arkport/Canaseraga came out like a bunch of apache warriors going to war, and today they didn’t have it. But our guys found a way to get going, and I understand the mindset of wanting to pick up where you left off. It’s hard to do that, but spending the first five minutes right in their goalmouth, that made it easier for us.”

That it did, and then some.

The momentum continued to tug into Fillmore’s favor when the second half came around, which allowed them to come across their first connection of the night.

Just eight minutes removed, the ice was broken off an indirect kick right at the top of the Arkport/Canaseraga box. After Eben Schilke started the play off with the tiniest of tap passes to Brent Zubikowski, the senior and his massive boot saw his shot take a hard redirection by a Wolves player in front, ultimately corralling past the keeper on the far side to take the 1-0 lead.

The Wolves wouldn’t allow to catch up to them, as they nearly answered on their next immediate rush after the Zubikowski goal with a high-arcing shot on the Fillmore cage, similar to the one that was scored in their season-opening matchup back in September. But only this time, the ball was kept out of the net by Luke Colombo in between the posts, reaching up the make the first initial stop, coming down with the ball in the process.

The ball would roll a short distance away from his grasp for the Wolves to put another attempt in on goal, and in the nick of time, Colombo crawled his way back to the ball to cover his second save without it going by, officially keeping them out of the net.

Arguably, the save of the game. One of two that Colombo made the entire night to preserve the shutout.

“People forget these moments in games often, but the moment in the game was when Luke came away with a big save that could have potentially saved our season,” Mullen said of the play. “He bobbles that, or even more, it’s a tie game and who knows after that. We could still have been playing to win for all we know. It’s the effort of every single person out there, and coaches say it all the time, but there were a lot of guys here that had the best games of their lives.”

The cover-up by Colombo gave Fillmore that extra shot of adrenaline to use for the last 20 minutes of regulation, as they continued to pound the Arkport/Canaseraga zone with chances until they could find a piece of insurance to tack onto the board. Crossing that midway mark, the Eagles finally found their opening.

After receiving the ball from center on a big kick from Graham Cahill, Deen Muzaid-Omar let his feet do the talking on Fillmore’s final goal, as he weaved his way through the Wolves defense for a shot that went top shelf above the goalkeeper to give the team a tantamount piece of insurance to extend their advantage by a pair over the Wolves.

That score would suffice for the last 15 minutes of play, as the defense buckled down and delivered massive clears out of their zone and back down the field to keep Arkport/Canaseraga out of reach until the final horn sounded on Fillmore’s second Class D1 triumph in the last three years.

The two goals by the Eagles were part of a seven-shot offensive effort they had on the night, as they outdueled the Wolves by a 7-2 count.

With the win, the celebration had commenced with the receiving of the Class D1 championship brick, as the team raced to the grandstands to hoist it in front of their home fans. On the way back over to the other side of the field, an exuberant amount of emotion and elation being shared between one another, as the team sang along to John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

Just moments after crossing the field, a final huddle for the weekend that included an emotional epilogue delivered by Mullen. Then, the blaring of a horn from a vehicle that came up the hill to Burke Field. An arrival of some special guests.

The Lady Eagles had rolled in to join the celebration, uniting the entire soccer community at one place, and at one time.

Let’s rewind the tape all the way back to 5:30, that evening.

In Warsaw, before the boys team even took the field at Houghton College, the Lady Eagles of Fillmore were up first to the plate. Like their counterparts, it was also their third straight trip to the Finals. They too could also be the recipients of their second Class D1 title in the last three seasons.

Their opposition was no slouch to Section V — the second-seeded Marion Lady Black Knights. A faux Rumble in the Jungle if you will, between two soccer clubs that have been playing their best soccer of the season.

Something had to give, right?

Right after the opening kick, both teams vacated their corners and began the battle at midfield. And not even two minutes into the fight, the Lady Eagles delivered a knockout punch straight to the jaw.

Off a direct kick from center, the ball was airlifted into the Marion defensive zone for Fillmore control. With a series of passes that ended with Malory DeRock grabbing one of the last touches, she shifted a drop pass back to Grace Russell who propelled a laser to the far post of the Lady Black Knights cage to get the Lady Eagles off and running early with a lead that they would not squander, using the momentum to set an early tone that was never eclipsed to capture the Class D1 Championship in an eventual 4-0 shutout.

“We score 90 seconds in, and it certainly takes the weight off your shoulders of being in a Section V Championship game,” said Lady Eagles coach Jon Beardsley. “I don’t know if it was a knockout punch, but it definitely managed to set a tone. From that point on, the girls knew it was their game to take. We executed very well in one of our better games that we’ve played all season. When you go to the Finals, it’s a time where you definitely want that to happen. They did everything flawlessly the entire night. The girls were flying, they played a ton of minutes and put together an effort that saw them shut down one of Marion’s best players who scored 40 goals.”

The damage was done by the Lady Eagles (19-0) right from the beginning, as they set as high of a bar imaginable for Marion to respond with for the next 78 minutes of play. As time continued to tick by, so did the Lady Black Knights and their opportunity to jump in full force.

Instead, Fillmore continued to press on in the first half by adding more fuel to the fire on offense, extending their lead to a pair with the help of Hope Russell, who scored the first of her two-goal set on the night with three minutes remaining in the half. Zoe Beardsley helped set it all up on a ball that was perfectly fed straight up the middle, cresendoing into a breakaway opportunity which was capitalized upon with a shot to the right side of the Marion net to take a 2-0 lead at halftime.

In the second half, the Lady Eagles continued to show no signs of slowing down, as they made it even more difficult for the Lady Black Knights. They would add two more goals in a span of two minutes just past the 10 minute mark of the final session to increase their lead to an insurmountable four, beginning with a corner kick that was started by Sophia Templeton.

The corner off Templeton’s foot reached the front of the Marion net, where it took a Lady Black Knights header over to the other side of the net where it met Emily Krzeminski right next to the far post, heading the ball into the narrow opening between the keeper and far post to earn the 3-0 lead.

A short time later, the game was officially put away by the top seeds with Hope Russell’s second tally of the game, as she picked up a massive punt from the leg of Rachel Hatch from one 20-yard line to the other on the opposite side of the field, as Russell worked her way past a Marion defender on the way in for her second goal of the game, tucking it past the challenging Lady Black Knights netminder to finish off a spectacular night of offense for the Lady Eagles.

On defense, Preslee Miller recorded four stops for the Lady Eagles to preserve perhaps her biggest shutout of the season in goal.

From the final buzzer onward, the celebration was on for Fillmore, as they collected their second Class D1 title in three years in dominating fashion. Then, they would take the party to Houghton College just over a half hour away.


The rest of Saturday night for the entire community of Fillmore, would be history at Burke Field.

“This has been an emotional week, and for Jamie as well. We just recently lost an aunt who was a huge soccer fan,” said Beardsley. “That and the boys game being cancelled last night, and being rescheduled tonight, and we couldn’t be here to help support them because of our game. But to see everyone come here at the end of the night, that’s what Fillmore is all about. The community support is like no other. The girls could not wait to come back here and support the guys. This exemplifies why we are successful. It’s not one person, or one thing. It’s an entire community.”

Up next for both teams: the Class D State Qualifier, as both the boys and girls squads will take the field tentatively on Tuesday at a site and time to be determined after the weekend. If there is a change, we will provide you with the information when it becomes available.

The boys will prepare to take on C.G. Finney in hopes to ignite a chance to make another States run in what is perhaps Mullen’s last hurrah on the sidelines with his team. As far as his upcoming matchup with the Class D2 champion Falcons, the veteran head coach says that the only team that can beat his, is themselves.

“One of my themes has been to stop worrying about other teams,” he said. “Call me a bad coach, but I don’t spend a lot of time scouting. I don’t really want that information, because half the time, kids aren’t consistent enough in this day and age to tell me what exactly I need to see. I focus heavily on the fact that the only team that can beat us right now, is ourselves. If we don’t show up and play the game we’re supposed to play, we will lose. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing.”

As for the ladies, they will get set to take the field against back-to-back Class D2 champion Notre Dame-Batavia. For Beardsley, the matter at hand will come in time. But for now, the big priority is for his team to embrace one of the more feel good moments of the year.

“Notre Dame-Batavia is a great team for a reason, but we’ll worry about that after the weekend is over. The kids need this stuff, and the communities needs nights like these,” he said. “When we went through Sectionals last year with our good teams making it to the Finals, it felt different not coming out on top. But this is something that hasn’t happened in a couple of years. For it to happen tonight on all nights, it is absolutely priceless.”

Chris Brooks
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Tuesday Sectionals: No. 1 Lady Eagles sweep No. 4 Ark/Can to advance to D3 Finals, will face No. 3 Houghton Academy in Allegany County fight for brick
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Friday Sectionals: No. 3 Finney outpaces No. 4 Scio to win Class D2 title in 3-0 shutout; Ark/Can-Fillmore Class D1 title game postponed due to rain