Harrisville, Chateaugay settle score with Class D crowns

POTSDAM — Two teams that lost Section 10 Class D soccer championship games last season gained revenge Friday night against the teams that defeated them, at Potsdam High School.

The Harrisville boys, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, beat No. 4 Parishville-Hopkinton 1-0 in overtime. Chateaugay's girls, the top seed in their tournament, beat No. 2 Harrisville 2-1.

Both teams have first-round byes in the state playoffs and will play quarterfinal games somewhere in Section 7 next weekend.

The Pirates (16-1-2) will play either Chazy or Willsboro, which meet at 7 tonight at Plattsburgh High School for the Section 7 title.

Chateaugay (17-1) will face either Lake Placid or Chazy, which play at 5 p.m. today at Plattsburgh High School.

BOYS GAME

HARRISVILLE 1,

PARISHVILLE-HOPKINTON 0 (OT)

Just when it looked more like a repeat of last year's Section 10 Class D championship, when Harrisville and Parishville-Hopkinton settled the issue by penalty kicks, the Pirates finally broke through to deny the Panthers a third straight trip to the state tournament.

Harrisville claimed a 1-0 victory when halfback Wayne Best corralled the loose ball amid a scramble in front of the Panther goal and scored unassisted with 3 minutes, 25 seconds left in the first sudden-death overtime.

"Last year was not a good finish for us in this game," said Pirates coach Rick Bearor. "We wanted to play Parishville again and both teams came out and played a great game tonight. I thought we had the better of the offense and we were finally able to score at the end.

"We did not want to go to the shootout again. Our defense, led by Dave Paro, and our midfield also did a great job."

Paro was named the Northern Athletic Conference West Division's Co-Defensive Most Valuable Player.

Parishville-Hopkinton (9-5-3) heads home after a scrappy defensive effort led by keeper Dennis Tebo who finished with nine saves in a game in which his team was outshot 16-5.

"Both teams played a great game," said Panthers coach Tony Engstrom. " I'm very pleased with our team. It's our third time here in three years and we won two of those."

GIRLS GAME

CHATEAUGAY 2, HARRISVILLE 1

After suffering a 1-0 loss last season in the Section 10 Class D finals to Harrisville, the Bulldogs reversed their fortune.

The Bulldogs wasted little time in jumping on Harrisville (15-1-2), something Chateaugay coach Steve Lang knew his team needed to do.

"They are a very good team," Lang said. "You need to try and get up on early and set the tone of the game the way you want it to be played. They are very physical and were pushing us off the ball early on. But we were able to respond to the physicality, get the first goal and grab the momentum."

With the Pirates heavily marking Bulldogs' top scorer Marissa Cook, Nikki Cooke-Paige stepped to the forefront.

Cooke-Paige, who found herself wide open at the top of the 18-yard box, took a pass from Kelly Favaro, dribbled a couple times and drilled a shot into the lower right-hand corner for the first goal just seven minutes into the game.

Harrisville took advantage of a Chateaugay mishap with just two minutes remaining to even the game.

Kathleen Coloney served a direct kick into the 18-yard box that was mishandled by Chateaugay keeper Amanda Wilcox and ended up on the foot of Emily Lesperance. Lesperance then chipped a toward the net, and the ball was chested in by Mary LaPlatney for the equalizer.

"I told my girls that the way they reacted to that mistake is what would decide this game," Lang said. "They had two options: to either hang their heads and watch them win the game or to pick their heads up and get the next goal."

The Bulldogs responded to the halftime speech by carrying the play until the Pirates countered and seemed to have the go-ahead marker. After Wilcox made a sprawling save, Harrisville's Katlyn Hart drilled a shot toward the open net that was kicked out by Chateaugay defenseman Amanda Johnston.

With the momentum back on their side, Chateaugay pushed across the eventual game-winner off a corner kick. Cook, who took the corner kick, found the loose ball on the scramble and found Cooke-Paige for her second goal of the game in the 65th minute.