Clean sweep: Massena boys, girls capture titles

POTSDAM — The Massena High School soccer teams made themselves feel at home on a rival school's field Tuesday night, claiming Section 10 Class A soccer championships.

The Red Raiders' girls team opened the doubleheader with Malone by beating the Huskies 8-3 in their championship. Massena's boys followed with a 1-0 victory over Malone to complete the sweep.

Both teams now have a bye into the state quarterfinals where they will travel to play either the Section 2 or Section 3 champion.

BOYS

MASSENA 1, MALONE 0

With just three goals allowed all season and 13 shutouts in 15 games, defense was not the chief concern for Massena (15-1-1 overall) coming into the championship game against Malone (4-9-2).

But with the Huskies' defense also rising to hold off the pressuring Red Raiders for the first 70 minutes of play, the question became whether either team would score or would the champion eventually be decided by the dreaded penalty kicks?

Enter David Henrie.

The son of Massena head coach Pat Henrie, forced to take outside shots for much of the contest from his center-halfback position, finally corralled a throw-in inside the penalty area. The senior deked a Huskie defender and deposited the ball into the lower right corner of the cage for his sixth goal of the season with 8 minutes, 31 seconds left in regulation time, giving Massena the victory.

"I chopped it down to my feet, one touch, and I was able to put it in the near side," said Henrie who was named Class A Most Valuable Player after the game

"I had taken five or six shots from outside the 18 and I was finally glad to get one inside," Henrie added. "It's my senior year and I want to go out strong. And I can't say enough about our defense."

Coach Henrie was proud of a team not expected to lose just one game all season.

"We lost three guys to prep school right before the season started and nobody thought we'd be this far, that we'd have this great a year," said Henrie. "This is the postseason where games are usually won 1-0 or by shootouts. We don't score a lot of goals, but we play phenomenal defense."

Tom Ward made six saves in goal for his 14th shutout of the season, while Will LaPage made 10 saves for the Huskies, who were outshot 13-7.

"We had a little better of the play, but give Malone credit, they were ready to play," said coach Henrie, who looked ahead to the state opener.

"Anything can happen. Our experience in the states will help us be a little more psychologically ready. Our kids are excited. They practice hard and play hard all year and now they've been rewarded."

GIRLS

MASSENA 8, MALONE 3

Two lopsided regular-season wins over Malone (9-7) didn't come back to haunt the Red Raiders (15-2) in the championship game.

"We had some big wins against them, but we definitely didn't take them lightly, " said Massena coach Ryan Hayes. "They are a dangerous team and we knew they were going to play us tough. We just seem to be moving the ball really well and lately, we've really been able to finish.

"It's been three weeks since our last game but the girls kept working hard in practice and we kept up with our conditioning. We we're ready for this one."

The Red Raiders won their 12th straight game and continued their late-season onslaught against opposing defenses against Malone, starting midway through the first half when a direct kick by Coree Phillips from 32 yards out was initially stopped by Huskies netminder Brianne Cositore. But the ball slipped through her arms and was quickly sent into the back of the net by Taylor Romeo at 16:38 of the first half.

Seven minutes later, the Red Raiders were ahead 4-0 and went on to build a commanding 5-2 halftime lead. They sealed the win late in the second half when they reeled off their final three goals during a 3-minute stretch.

Kristen Paller made it 2-0 with the first of her two straight goals in the 25th minute off an assist from Dominique Valancuis. Two minutes later, Paller converted from Paulina Behrens for the third Massena goal, and then set up Nyssa LaClair in the 32nd minute to make it 4-0.

The Huskies got on the board in the 33rd minute when Brittany Marshall broke through after taking a lead pass from Emily Studlack. LaClair quickly restored the four-goal advantage 4 minutes later off an assist from Paller before Marshall closed out the half by racing in to score her second of the game with 51 seconds left off an assist from Laura Pelkey.