Tuesday Roundup: Early goal by Sawyer helps Wellsville win midfield battle with C-R in 1-0 shutout

Written By Chris Brooks

WELLSVILLE — Just 24 hours after the Lady Lions secured the 1-0 victory in overtime against Cuba-Rushford, it was the boys team’s turn to potentially sweep the home series against the Rebels with them in town on Tuesday.

Throughout the game’s entirety, both the Lions and Rebels took the fight to the midfield. And in the end, it was a battle that Wellsville came out victorious in, as they leaned on Dominic Sawyer’s early goal in the first half to be the determining factor in a mimicking 1-0 season opening shutout of their own.

“I thought we did some really good things that we’ve been working on. Getting the ball, putting the pressure on their back four. The finishing touch wasn’t quite there yet, but I like what our young guys brought to the table tonight,” Lions coach Matt Buckley said. “There was a lot of midfield battling tonight, and it was a midfield game. I thought we did a better job of knowing who we were marking as the game went on. They’re athletes, and Cuba-Rushford has a lot of them, and there were instances where they pick and chose what they wanted to work with.”

The Lions (1-0) were able to connect early, even though they avoided a close call with the Rebels straight out of the gate with the team’s first big chance on a corner kick that went through the hands of keeper Logan Dunbar. But the Lions keeper was able to regroup, and halt play shortly after with a big save.

Minutes later, Wellsville found the money with nine minutes gone in the opening half, as a deep pass from Ethan Bailey sank in front of a streaking Sawyer, who managed to break away toward the Cuba-Rushford goal with keeper Jarrett Campbell pushed out to contest the shot, but Sawyer managed to finesse his way by to hit the shot into the empty net.

“Dominic likes to put a bunch of pressure on the back line, even though he got called offsides a few times,” Buckley said of his senior. “That’s what he loves to do. You’re going to get called for that, but you’re also going to score. Today, he scored. I’ll take three or four offsides calls, rather than three or four own goals.”

In the remaining time past the Sawyer goal, both Wellsville and Cuba-Rushford (0-1) went back and forth through the midfield for the remainder of the game, with both keepers doing their due diligence along the way with a number a saves.

When the second half came, Wellsville turned up the heat right out of the gate with assistance from Alex Ordiway, who provided two quality chances on the Cuba-Rushford net, with his first coming inside the box, but he was not able to cash in as play was halted.

He would tally another fine chance later on toward the midway mark, using his exceptional footwork to mosey in toward the opposing net once more, lifting a shot that nearly connected but went wide. Sawyer also added a chance from an Ordiway pass toward a breakaway, but his shot went through the spacing in between the crossbar and the upright.

All in all, an increase in tempo was exactly what Buckley wanted to see from his Lions in the second half.

“The tempo picked up, and I thought we had some chances,” he said. “We just couldn’t put them in. We had a nice stretch of about 10 minutes where the ball was in our scoring zone. I really liked how we started the game, and how we started the second half. We’ve been working on starting faster, and we kind of did that tonight. We got some guys that have never played varsity, and they looked really good. The second half, we made some personnel adjustments, and the back four looked really good.”

The game would not come to its conclusion without Cuba-Rushford’s best chance of the night coming with 15 minutes left to play, as the Rebels pushed forward with a big send from 30 yards away to a streaking Logan Lewis. He would gain traction on the ball, and nearly put the ball far post behind Logan Dunbar. But the ball rang off the post, and the Wellsville keeper would sprawl to cover to ultimately secure the shutout win for the hosts in black.

Dunbar would record the shutout for the Lions, making five stops in all. Campbell on the other side made four saves for the Rebels. As far as the condensed season is concerned? Buckley says that he is very fortunate to come out and coach his team.

“You can see the guys were all up by the sideline after the game. They were excited to be out here, and they were loving every minute of it. They show up to practice like this the same exact way. They want to be out here to play, and they want to have that normalcy again.”

The Lions will return to their home turf Thursday night at 6 p.m. when they host Genesee Valley. As for Cuba-Rushford, they will also return to the field on Thursday, but they will head home for Senior Night as they host Scio.

Fillmore 4, Genesee Valley 0

FILLMORE —Fresh off a big seven goal performance to open up their season on Saturday, the Eagles of Fillmore continued their early dominance with Genesee Valley in town on Tuesday.

With Mitchell Ward and his two goals leading the way, the Eagles were able to get the job done to start their season off at 2-0 with a 4-0 shutout of the Jaguars.

“It was another game where every kid that was eligible got into the game,” said Eagles assistant coach Jordan Mullen. “We had our best scoring opportunities come in bunches, and everyone contributed. I don’t know how else to explain it. We have 11 guys out there that are capable and able, and everyone shows up in every game. If we can keep doing that, we will keep winning these games.”

Fillmore (2-0) split their goal scoring in half during the game, with Alex Ellsworth starting things off with his first of the season coming just over 10 minutes in off a Brent Zubikowski feed. Five minutes later, Ward made it a 2-0 lead for the hosts at the break with his unassisted goal.

In the second half, the Eagles and Jaguars (0-1-1) battled to begin the opening minutes, but Fillmore went back to their scoring ways at the 51st minute mark, netting two goals in 40 seconds with Ward dishing off a pass to Isaiah Voss for the goal, and then following with his second of the game from Eben Schilke.

Altogether, Fillmore outshot Genesee Valley by a final 13-4 count, with Dylan Valentine grabbing the four-save shutout for the Eagles. Keegan McKnight made nine saves for the Jaguars.

Both teams are back at it on Thursday, as Fillmore hits the road to visit Bolivar-Richburg for a 7 p.m. clash, while Genesee Valley looks to bounce back with a 6 p.m. contest in Wellsville.

Bolivar-Richburg 5, Scio 1

BOLIVAR — Rudy Polk and Jason Greeson were the driving force behind Bolivar-Richburg’s explosive night on offense, as the Wolverines piled on four second half goals to power up a 2-0 start to their season with a 5-1 victory over visiting Scio on Tuesday.

Polk got the scoring started after an early battle through the first half. With 10:37 remaining, he would pick up a feed from Mark Pangburn at center, burying it past Cory Bolzan to break the ice for the Wolverines (2-0).

Not long after, the Tigers (1-1) would find their way on the board with help from Cam Loucks, who scored his second of the season on an unassisted tally with 4:15 left to make it a 1-1 tie going into halftime.

Then the goals came right away in the second half. Not even two minutes into the new session, Greeson added his first of two goals on a feed from Hunter Stuck to give Bolivar-Richburg the advantage permanently.

From that point, the Wolverines continued to add on, as Wyatt Karnuth was the next one in line to score, picking up a Maliky Hall feed just over 10 minutes later to extend their lead to a pair. Polk toward the back half of the game added his second, with Karnuth tallying the assist.

The goal scoring ended with 99 seconds left to play with Greeson’s second goal himself, grabbing a Pangburn feed down the field to knock it away to ensure the victory for good.

Wayne Karnuth picked up the win in goal for the hosts, stopping five shots. Bolzan finished with a whopping 15 saves on the other side for the Tigers.

Both teams are back at it Thursday night with 7 p.m. contests, as Bolivar-Richburg prepares for a big test on the road against defending Class D1 champ Fillmore, while Scio ships out to Cuba-Rushford.

Belfast 1, Hinsdale 0

BELFAST — Looking to rebound off a 7-1 season opening loss to the hands of Fillmore over the weekend, Belfast returned home to open up their home slate on Tuesday with Hinsdale in town.

Although it was a bit of a battle for the majority of the game, the Bulldogs managed to get the goal they needed to make sure they stayed out of the loss column this time around, shutting out the Bobcats with a 1-0 victory.

“It was back and forth. We had 10 corner kicks, and we just couldn’t finish them,” Bulldogs coach Mark Sullivan said. “We definitely played a lot better than our first game in Fillmore. We still have some guys out sick, but we’re slowly getting back to normal again. Some of the younger guys really stepped up tonight, and that was the key. We lacked some wheels in our first game on that turf, but being back home, we didn’t become timid again.”

In a game where Belfast (1-1) heavily outshot Hinsdale by a 10-2 count, just one goal found the back of the net the entire 80 minutes across the scoreboard. That goal belonged to Matt Weaver, who scored his first of the season off a feed from Melvin Hamer with two minutes left in the first half.

From there, Belfast was able to hold the fort down on defense in front of goalkeeper Stephen Struckmann, who was able to record the two-save shutout. On the other side, Hinsdale’s (0-1-1) Ethan Cashmere made nine saves in goal.

Both teams return to action Thursday night, with Belfast playing host to Andover/Whitesville in a 7 p.m. contest, while Hinsdale heads to Houghton Academy for a 5 p.m. battle.

Chris Brooks
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