Three teams earn titles, two advance

MASSENA — Brushton-Moira and Norwood-Norfolk soccer fans got to see plenty of extra action in the Section 10 Class C title games Wednesday night at Massena High School.

The girls championship game ended in a 1-1 tie and third-seeded Brushton-Moira (8-7-1 overall) advanced to the state playoffs after edging No. 4 Norwood-Norfolk 2-0 on penalty kicks. The teams are considered co-champions.

Like the girls, the boys matchup between the two schools went to overtime, but ended with a goal five minutes in by Norwood-Norfolk's Adam Stone, giving the top-seeded Flyers (8-7-2) a 3-2 win over No. 3 Brushton-Moira (5-10).

The Brushton-Moira girls will host the Section 7 champion in a first-round state playoff game Tuesday at a site to be determined. Seton Catholic will play Northern Adirondack for that championship at 3 p.m. Saturday at Plattsburgh High School.

Norwood-Norfolk (8-7-2) will travel to play the Section 2 boys champion in a first-round state playoff game Wednesday. The Section 2 Class C/CC championship game is Monday.

GIRLS GAME

BRUSHTON-MOIRA 1, NORWOOD-NORFOLK 1

The Panthers followed a similar route to a second straight trip to the state tournament, after beating St. Lawrence Central in a shootout last season.

"We played well and they played well," said coach Chuck Phippen. "It was an up-and-down game. We're just very happy to share the championship and now we're looking forward to that next game."

After being denied on the 11 shots they got on net by Flyers keeper Brynn Tebo through the first 80 minutes, the Panthers broke through for the first goal just 1 minute, 49 seconds into the first overtime when a long throw-in delivered from the right sideline into the penalty area by Jessica Jacques triggered a goalmouth scramble that ended with Kelsey Manchester knocking the ball into the back of the net.

The Flyers (6-9-4), who forced LaPage to make eight saves through regulation, made the most of their only shot of the first overtime. Stepping up from her sweeper position, Kaitlyn Levison controlled the ball near midfield and quickly sent a long pass toward the right wing where it was trapped by teammate Tayler Chudzinski, who turned and lofted a shot from just outside the top right corner of the penalty area over LaPage with just 1:45 left.

After a second 10-minute overtime and two 5-minute sudden victory sessions produced few good scoring chances and no other goals, the teams went to penalty kicks where the Panthers converted for the only two goals, on shots from Manchester and Taylor Keck. Brushton-Moira sophomore goalkeeper Emily LaPage stopped three Flyer shots while one went wide.

"This was a game of two evenly-matched teams," said Flyers coach Jason Hubbard. "It was a real emotional roller coaster. Both teams had their chances and I was very proud of the way we came back to score after they scored in overtime. It just didn't go our way tonight."

BOYS GAME

NORWOOD-NORFOLK 3, BRUSHTON-MOIRA 2 (OT)

After falling to Brushton-Moira the last two years in the sectional championship game, the Flyers found themselves down 2-1 to the Panthers at halftime in this year's title game.

But Andrew Stone scored the tying goal on a 20-yard direct kick with 16 minutes left in regulation, and Adam Stone scored his second goal of the night just 9:44 into sudden-victory overtime to give the Flyers the victory.

"We got up early, but unfortunately at the end of the first half we found ourselves down, even though we had played a pretty good first half," said Flyers coach Don Peterson. "We got a bad bounce on their first goal and we had a defensive lapse on the second, but these guys don't give up. I told them they had 40 minutes left and if we just play our style of soccer we would get ourselves back in the game."

After Adam Stone took a pass from Thomas Plumb and opened the scoring with a shot which deflected off the keeper's fingertips and into the cage in the sixth minute, the Panthers roared back with goals in the 32nd and 35th minutes as John Green connected from Dylan Charlebois and Josh Rowe scored from Green.

On the game-winner, Adam Stone beat his defender down the right wing and scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season into the lower right corner. After the winning goal, he was issued a red card for taunting and, according to rules of soccer, will not be eligible for the first game of the state tournament.

Pat Durant finished with seven saves in goal for the Flyers while Andrew Martin made 12 stops for the Panthers.

"Brushton is a very good team," said Peterson. "This is third year in a row we played them and it's nice to beat them once."

Class C All-Northerns were announced after the game and included Adam Stone, Durant and Plumb from Norwood-Norfolk. Green and Josh Sevey represented Brushton-Moira. Jacob Fisher, Jordan Kendall (Defensive Most Valuable Player) and Dan Sladewski from Madrid-Waddington.