The Alexander Girl's Soccer team outplayed many peoples predictions and gave Geneseo all they could handle in the 2nd round of the class C sectionals and lead 1-0 at halftime, but Geneseo came from behind in the 2nd half and put two in the net to win the game 2-1 and move on to the semi-finals to face York.
Geneseo came out hot in the 1st half and peppered the Alexander goal with shots but only a few found the target and were turned away by Sophomore goalie Hannah Wilson. Alexander struggled with Geneseo's formation in the first 15 minutes and had to make an adjustment, but settled down after the inital Geneseo flury and played quite well from there on out.
Alexander struck first on their first good chance of the game as Junior Anna Dominick found her sister 8th grade Midfielder Maria Dominick on a cross to put Alexander up 1-0 with 10 minutes left in the first half. Alexander held the lead into halftime and knew they were in for a fight in the 2nd half.
Alexander held strong for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half but #14 finally got lose down the left flank and crossed a ball that just eluded a leaping Wilson at the near post and was ran into the goal by #3. Alexander didn't back down and kept working hard all over the field. With #11 on the bench Alexander saw the 2nd goal find their net as #2 had a great little play inside the 18 and fired it inside the right post to make it 2-1. Alexander kept attacking but just couldn't get a ball in a dangerous spot. Anna Dominick had a cross that was grabbed by the keeper with 5 minutes left and Alexander had 2 corners in the final 2 minutes but couldn't get either in a dangerous spot.
Lost in the scoreline was the play of 8th grade marking defender Abby Shilvock who held Sarah Bono (who has 23 goals this year) to under 5 shots on net throughout the game. Shilvock seemed to be inside Bono's head reading her moves and winning the ball throughout the game. Sophomore Tessa Bigelow did an equally strong job on #10 from Geneseo who is another fantastic player.
Great performances were turned in by Sophomore defender Savannah VanSon, 8th grade defender Gabby Kwiatek, 11th grade defender Leah Johnson, 10th grade midfielders Claire Hartl and Autumn Atkinson, 9th grade midfielder Julia Pettys, and Senior Midfielder Rachel Pettys. Great minutes were contributed by 10th grade Mid Ashley Szymanski and 10th grade forward Morgan Mattice off the bench.
Congrats to Geneseo on a great game and a great season. I am very proud of the way that all my girls played in this game, you all really stepped up to the plate in this game and gave Geneseo all they could handle. Great job to all of you - you should be very proud.
