By Dave Clark

For the Express

Bolton Landing and Northwood both took home the biggest prizes of the annual Columbus Day Soccer Tournament held last Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 8 and 9, at the Allen Stripp Soccer Complex on North Street. 

It was not easy for the teams to advance on this beautiful weekend, (weatherize,) as most of the games were very closely played. 

On Saturday, Northwood and Johnsburg boys opened the tournament with Northwood gaining a relatively easy 3-0 win over Johnsburg. The game was followed by Northwood girls defeating the Indian Lake/Long Lake team, 2-0 to also reach the finals.

The third game was a good match between the state ranked Bolton Landing boys team and a fine Old Forge team. Bolton struck first early in the first half but on a well struck ball off the foot of Trevor Godemann from a pass from Kevin Kress, Old Forge tied the game. Later in the same half, Bolton struck again, this time it was not a good goal and should not have happened. However, with 39 seconds left in the half, in what I felt was a key play of the game, Bolton hit a very nice shot to give them a 3-1 halftime lead.  A two-goal lead by such a fine team is very hard for any team to overcome. 

Old Forge did their best in the second half by taking over most of the play as Bolton seemed to feel a need to drop back into a defensive mode. It almost backfired as West Tickner took a pass from Connor Rockhill and scored with 8:26 left in the game. They continued to put pressure on Bolton but Bolton's very fine goalkeeper was just too good to get another goal past him and Bolton escaped with a 3-2 victory. For the game, Old Forge outshot Bolton and while the Old Forge goalkeeper, Trevor Rice only had six saves, Bolton's keeper had to make 12 saves. Last week I mentioned the girls tough schedule, but the boys also have played a very strong schedule too. With their upcoming game at home against state-ranked Hamilton, it will be the fifth game out of their total of 15 games played, in which they face a state-ranked team. 

The Old Forge girls also got into a close game with Bolton and they ended up losing a heartbreaker on penalty kicks. Haley Bush opened the game with a goal, her first of the year, with only 2:14 gone in the first half.  What a start, but, that was it for Old Forge.  Maddie Phaneuf assisted on the goal. 

Neither team could get a goal even though Old Forge had the chances, and just the way it has gone so many times for the girls, with only 2:38 left in the game, Bolton tied the game to send it into overtime. Again, Old Forge had their chances to score in overtime, but, they never could finish. The game went to the penalty kick shootout and the first four girls on each team scored on their shots. Finally, the fifth girls determined the outcome as Bolton made their shot and Old Forge missed, sending Bolton into the championship game and leaving Old Forge, a very dejected team, to play in the consolation game. 

On Sunday, the Old Forge boys had little trouble with Johnsburg as they defeated them 7-1 to take the consolation trophy prize. It did not start out that way as Johnsburg scored their only goal just 16 seconds into the game. It always seems to be hard to call when two teams play for the consolation prize and this was one that made everyone wonder if Old Forge was ready to play. They left little doubt about that soon after as Tickner scored followed by three straight goals by Ethan Kress, the second time this year that he has scored a "hat trick". Sam Waterbury, Kevin Kress and Austin Down scored the other three goals. Waterbury, Kevin Kress and Rockhill each had an assist. 

The team outshot Johnsburg by a wide margin, 45-11, had a 7-0 advantage on corner kicks with Rice recording four saves for the game. It was no contest. 

The Old Forge girls never did get their game into high gear as they just could not put the ball in the net even though they had a 31-6 shot advantage. Seems unlikely that could happen but that has been the season for Old Forge. To finish plays, a team has to be hungry to score and I saw none of that on Sunday. Neither team could score after two halves of play and two overtime periods of play.  They went to penalty kicks again, to get a winner, and Old Forge continued to show why they ended up losing.  They never made one penalty kick, all three were not good kicks at all, and Indian Lake/Long Lake took home the consolation prize. The visitors won on their fourth kick with all further kicks unnecessary. 

It was a terrible two losses for the girls although it officially goes down as two ties on their record. The team had been playing their best ball lately, but, this game was not one of them. 

In the boys' final game, the best game of the tournament, Bolton defeated Northwood 2-1 with their winning goal coming early in the first "sudden victory" overtime period.  It was a game where two very fine teams battled evenly throughout the game.

Northwood controlled the girls' championship game for most of the game as they took home their first championship ever in this tournament. If Old Forge could not win, it was nice to see Northwood win with Maddie Mahoney playing for them. That game ended another fine tournament.

Even though neither Old Forge team could make it to the championship game, it still was a tournament of very close games, fine competition and splendid weather.  It was truly a great weekend with many fans enjoying all of the games from start to finish.