Girls junior varsity soccer

The girls’ junior varsity soccer team recorded a 2-1 victory last Tuesday, Oct. 4, at Little Falls.  

Morgan Payne and Allyson Brosemer tallied one goal each to lead the team offensively.  Mercedes Rice had an assist and took many key throw-ins at midfield to keep the ball on the offensive side of the playing field. On defense, Sam Notley, Jody Bolton and Lindsay Payne played very strong games in holding Little Falls to just one goal.  

After an earlier three-game win streak, the team just picked up their second straight victory and they have hopes of extending that streak even farther. They now stand at 5-4 for the season.

Cross country

The cross country running teams took part in a CSC Meet at Hamilton this past Wednesday, Oct. 5 with Cooperstown and Little Falls also competing that day.  

None of the teams had complete teams due to soccer, injuries, etc. On the varsity level, only one runner took part in the entire race and that was Sara Carnell who did very well by finishing in the top ten of all runners. Carnell was tenth. One other girl entered the race, but, she did not finish. Most of the top runners on the girls’ team were at a soccer game at Adirondack. There were no boys who went to the meet.  

The modified teams were also affected by conflicts but, they still were impressive in their running. The girls were missing most of their team, however, Robin Smith and Lauren Beckingham finished the race for their team. Three boys ran for their team and they were once again, led by West Lamphear who finished in first place overall.  Lamphear has been having a great season and is steadily proving to be one of the top runners in the entire CSC League. Zach McGough and Jake Prichard came in 14th and 15th for the team.   

Girls modified soccer

The girls’ modified soccer team continue to win impressively as they ran their season’s record to 5-0 under first year coach, Joanna Cloherty.  

First an addition to the first game, a win over Poland 5-0. The score that was given to me was 4-0 with a goal scored by Holly Kalil left out.  

The team followed that win up with a 4-0 victory over Oriskany played Friday, Sept. 30. Thunder ruled out their originally scheduled game there on Tuesday, Sept. 27. A good solid defense kept the ball at the offensive end of the field allowing Melissa Rockhill to score two goals with Allie Evans and Maggie Queen getting one goal each. Mara Gaffney had one assist.  

Thursday, Sept. 29, the team played at Westmoreland and won in a very easy game, 11-0. Many girls got into the scoring action but Cloherty wanted to emphasize the great defense played by Megan Greene and goaltending by Madison Rice. Cloherty also mentioned Olivia Phaneuf and Queen as keeping the midfield together with their fine play.  

The teams toughest game of the year so far was a home game against Remsen on Monday, Oct. 3. Goals were scored by Kalil, Chloe Barkauskas and Rockhill with Gaffney getting an assist. Rice did another good job in the goal and Greene, with her ankle taped up, still was able to play an outstanding game at her sweeper position. I might add that Remsen does not have a junior varsity soccer team, so that meant that ninth graders were playing for the Rams. It means that this young Eskimo team’s victory was all that more impressive.

To complete their week, they traveled to Boonville on Wednesday, Oct. 5, to play a good Adirondack team. It did not matter, Old Forge kept their undefeated season going with a 3-1 victory. Kalil led the offense with two goals and Queen had the other goal.  Gaffney, once again, picked up an assist. Maddie Rice played an exceptional game in the goal with Evans having a key save as a backup goalie. Excellent defense was played by Melanie Levi, Chloe Brosemer, Caroline DeFilipps and Phaneuf as they controlled the midfield play.  

The team will be playing their next game at the school athletic field today, Oct. 11, against Adirondack at 4:30. Try to get out and give this team support and see if they can continue their winning streak.

Girls varsity soccer

The girls’ varsity soccer team is starting to play their best soccer of the year in their last three games played. Many teams would be hanging their heads and giving up on the season after absorbing so many defeats. They opened their season with a 9-0 victory over Rome Catholic and have not won a game since. But there is definite improvement.  

After a close 2-1 loss at Westmoreland last week, the team had to entertain the strong Remsen Rams this past Monday, Oct. 3. Remsen came into the game undefeated with their mighty defense giving up only about three or four goals all year. In short, they are a dominant team as a recent number one state ranking would indicate.  

Old Forge opened the game with a goal scored shy of the opening two minutes of play.  Old Forge got a corner kick, Daria Orekhov delivered a beautiful kick right to Lauren Holt who rifled the ball past Remsen’s excellent goalie. That kind of shocked Remsen but it was the play by the Old Forge team in the next 15 minutes that may have been even more shocking. They did not control the play, but, they were keeping the ball in our offensive zone quite a bit and were not being dominated by the Rams. Finally, at the midway point of the first half Orekhov, again, delivered a nice pass to Katie Connell who struck a 25 yard shot over and past the Ram goalkeeper. Remsen has a tall and very athletic keeper, and to get a ball past her has to be well struck and placed. The Rams now found themselves in a position that they never faced before, down and by two goals.  

Remsen is not a team to panic and with only 2:21 left in the half they got a score.  That score seemed to energize them and by the time the half was over, the Rams had a 3-2 lead and the momentum in the game. That stretch was the difference in the game as Remsen went on to win the contest, 6-3. Orekhov capped a fine game as she scored late in the contest to give the Eskimos the three goals that was the most given up by the Rams this year.  

Remsen deserved to win as they controlled most of the play and have such a fast team. They can strike quickly and often as the end of the first half showed. Old Forge played their best ball against them in the first half and could not end the half with the lead. They made the Remsen goaltender work hard with 10 saves with Jessica Menges recording 16 saves for Old Forge. Unfortunately, when things did get tough we made some bad mistakes. We actually assisted on two of their goals.

Old Forge had to shake off that tough loss to Remsen and take a trip to Boonville to play Adirondack, a team that defeated them earlier in the season. In the first half, Connell took a pass from Orekhov and neatly placed the ball past the Adirondack goalie to give the team a 1-0 halftime lead. Unfortunately for the team, Adirondack scored the tying goal late in the second half to send the game into overtime. The teams battled to a 1-1 tie with Old Forge missing out on some good scoring opportunities. That tie, nevertheless, continues to show how this team is improving.  

One of the things that some people may not realize is that this team plays a very difficult schedule. It is hard for the smallest school in the division to continue to win.  Sports is a game of numbers and if you compete in a competitive sport, the odds are against you. I heard someone say the other day that the boys have no trouble beating Adirondack, why are the girls having so much trouble?  At Adirondack, soccer is the main sport for the girls, however, football is the main sport for the boys. Many of their best athletes are taking part on the football team making it difficult for their soccer team to win. This is not to take away anything from the boys team who are having a winning season but I hope it helps explain why the girls team can have such a tough season even though they have a decent team themselves. Its all in the competition.

Boys junior varsity soccer

The boys’ junior varsity soccer team played host to a very strong Clinton team this past Wednesday, Oct. 5.

Old Forge opened the game on a very positive note with a great breakaway goal by Hunter Lawrence. Lawrence collected the ball at midfield and simply beat the entire defense to the goal for a very strong beginning to the game. The team continued to control the play and they had two more breakaways in the next 10 minutes only to see the shot go wide or right at their goalie. I felt that that was the key time for Old Forge, had they scored those goals and gone ahead 3-0, they probably would have won the game. As it turned out, Clinton scored a 5-2 victory with one of their scores late in the contest when coach, Travis Kiefer, moved a couple of his defensive players up to the offensive end to give more strength there. If you are behind 4-2, you won’t win if you cannot score, so I believe that move was certainly correct.

Dane Daiker scored the other goal in the second half.  One of Clinton’s goals was scored by one of the Old Forge players in an attempt to clear the ball out of the goal area.  The game was far closer than the score indicates as Old Forge had a 20-12 advantage in shots and the Clinton goalie had to make eight saves to only five by Will Johnson, the Old Forge goaltender. The difference was the accuracy of the Clinton shots. The only shots that I can remember that was taken by one player for Clinton who scored three goals, were those three shots. They simply were more efficient.

The team was to play a makeup game at home against Herkimer on Thursday, Oct. 6, but, Herkimer could not make the game and it will probably be played later in the season if the two schools can find an agreeable date.

Boys varsity soccer

The boys’ varsity soccer team got back to their winning ways as they defeated Adirondack and Sauquoit this past week.

Tuesday, Oct. 4, the team hosted Adirondack and had an easy time in gaining a 3-0 victory. This was a game in which the game was not as close as the score would indicate. Old Forge dominated the action from start to finish. Adirondack seemed more concerned with the defensive end and because of that, they really never mounted any kind of offense at all.  

Kevin Kress got the team off to a lead midway through the first half with an unassisted goal. Two minutes later, Sam Waterbury scored on a nicely placed shot after he gathered in a pass from Kevin Kress. The half ended with the Town of Webb School up 2-0. Kevin Kress scored the only goal in the second half on a nice shot that caught the upper right corner of the net.  In all, Old Forge outshot Adirondack, 37-2. Adirondack did not get a shot off until just under 10 minutes left in the game. Trevor Rice did not have to register one save in the game and truly could have played the game in a tuxedo. The opposing goaltender had to make 10 saves. Old Forge also had a big advantage in corner kicks with an eight to one count.  

The team played very well with some fine passing and complete control of the midfield.  They played smart, clean soccer and one that you have to be happy in seeing from them, especially after the Remsen game. The only place one could find fault is with the 37 shots. They scored three times, the Adirondack goalie stopped 10 shots so that means a lot of shots were not on goal. That part of their game still needs improvement and it has hurt them at times all year.  

Their next game was one that I was very concerned with and that was their game at Sauquoit. I thought Sauquoit did some good things playing on our field and they have been improving their game as evidenced by their playing the league leaders, Westmoreland, to a 1-1 tie last Tuesday, Oct. 4. With that tie, Poland moves into a first place tie with Westmoreland and their head-to-head contest coming up should determining who wins the league.  

Old Forge got off to a slow start the first 15 minutes of the game and were lucky that Sauquoit did not score. However, they picked up the pace and finally Waterbury scored an unassisted goal with about three minutes left in the half. That goal was all they needed as the entire team played a strong second half and held Sauquoit scoreless for a hard fought 1-0 victory. The game was played in such a way that you could not pick out a couple of players who made the difference. Coach, John “Louie” Ehrensbeck felt the entire team played very well as they closed out the league portion of their season with a 6-3-1 record. The team has already qualified for sectional play but they will want to win as many of the games that are left on their schedule in order to get a good seed and home field advantage in the early rounds.  

Boys modified soccer

The boys’ modified soccer team has been very busy with games and are building up a nice winning record in the process.  

Going back in the schedule, I would like to fill in on the three games in which I did not have input on.

Monday, Sept. 26 in the boys 3-1 loss to Westmoreland, Carter Kelly scored the only goal for his team. Wednesday, Sept. 28, also a 3-1 loss to Remsen, Tyler Fenton scored the only goal. Finally, in the Friday, Sept. 30 game, a win over Poland 3-0, Matt Andre, Nikolai Orekhov and Fenton scored the goals with assists going to Carter Lawrence, Andre and Henry Uzdavinis.  

Now we get to this past week with games against Adirondack and Sauquoit. Tuesday, Oct. 4, the team hosted Adirondack and had no trouble defeating them, 5-0. Orekhov scored the first goal on an assist from Fenton. Fenton scored the second goal unassisted. Andre scored the third goal on an assist from Fenton with Tayler Schmid scoring the fourth goal and Connor Ulrich getting the last goal with only 12 seconds left in the game. Schmid and Jake Prichard divided the goaltending duties and combined their efforts for the shutout.  

Thursday, Oct. 6, the team traveled to Sauquoit and had another good game as they went on to win, 6-2. The first half ended with Old Forge leading 3-1 on the strength of goals by Fenton, Erik Lenci, and TJ Hulser. Uzdavinis assisted on Fenton’s goal and Luke Monroe assisted on Lenci’s goal. Hulser’s goal was a successful penalty kick.  

The second half was more of the same as they were led by two unassisted goals by Orekhov, only a seventh grader. Monroe scored the other goal in the half on an assist from Fenton. In all, it was a very successful game and week of play with a lot of scoring.

It is only fair to mention that with all this scoring, two boys stand out but you may not see their names mentioned because they are rarely in the scoring scheme of things because of the position that they play. Carter Lawrence and Monroe play the important positions of center midfielder and stopper, respectively. The two of them dominate their areas of the field collecting the ball and distributing the ball to the offensive players up the field so they can score. They both do their jobs very well and are a large part of the team’s success even if they never score a goal.