ELLICOTTVILLE — Rounding past the midway point of the high school boys soccer regular season, it’s clear who sits atop the CCAA East division.
With a 5-0 start, Allegany-Limestone holds a victory over each team in the east division and a two-game lead over 3-2 Salamanca/Cattaraugus-Little Valley. The race for second got a little more crowded Thursday night, however, as Ellicottville topped Randolph 2-1 to move into a three-way tie for third place with Portville and Franklinville at 2-3, a game behind S/CLV.
“It’s funny because coach (Dave) Levandowski and I were talking and Allegany is undefeated, they’re having a great season,” Eagles coach Matt Finn said, “and I think everybody else is kind of in the hunt for second. That’s what it feels like and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Sophomore midfielder Jack Snyder scored twice for Ellicottville (2-4, 2-3), first giving his team a 1-0 lead on a header in the final minute of the first half, then taking back the lead for good with eight minutes to play. Brennan Finn and Noah Stuve each marked an assist.
The Cardinals (2-5, 1-4) responded with much better possession in the second half and produced the tying goal 10 minutes in on Kaleb Steward’s score and Chase Smallback’s assist.
“They came out a lot hungrier than we did in the second half,” Finn said. “I felt we came out pretty flat and they ran through everything and we kind of hesitated. That was actually the goal, we hesitated going after the ball, they didn’t, ran through and there it was. I think that did wake my guys up a little bit that ‘Oh wait, we still have to play some soccer.’ I was proud of how we recovered because I was getting a little nervous that they might fold after that.”
Ellicottville goalkeeper Parker Rieman and Randolph’s Jacob Bulich made six saves each.
After going 3-14 last fall, the Eagles are still young, starting three seniors.
“We do have six seniors but only three of them start and we lost one to injury,” Finn said. “Our whole defense is freshmen except for Elliot (Bowen).
“My preseason (outlook) was we might struggle for the first half but I think they’ll get good game experience very quickly and they’ll get better and better. It seems like that’s what we’re doing.”
With just two seniors on the roster, Randolph has its own youth movement to fill holes after making the Section 6 Class C championship last year.
“I think the biggest key — since we’re so young and we graduated so many players last year — is our energy levels,” Levandowski said. “Just getting focused on trying to win a game. We’ve spent a lot of time this year trying not to lose and when we get behind our heads go down, shoulders go down and today even when (Ellicottville) scored that late goal we came right back at them, we had a lot of chances toward the end. It’s a good confidence boost for the guys and it’s a good sign for us moving forward.”
