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Edmeston Community News
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By Dean
Russin
Daily Star - Sports Editor
ONEONTA, NY The only red card
that mattered Sunday at the Wright National
Soccer Campus actually came Saturday.
Edmeston rallied around the on-field absence of
senior defender Paul
Stanton, hit with a game-saving red card Saturday,
for a 3-1 boys soccer
victory over Section Nine's Seward in the Class D
state championship.
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2003 ECS Varsity Soccer Team -
NY State Class D Champions |
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"We all felt great just
to win the Tri-Valley," said freshman Colin Bliss,
who scored all three of the Panthers' goals in the
first half. "Then we won
Section Four, then we just kept on rolling. We just
never stopped."
The Panthers, who won their last 16 to finish the
season 21-2-1, earned
their first state title of any kind, according to
Edmeston athletic
director Les Bush. With Stanton suspended for the
final, Edmeston shuffled
its lineup to compensate for a huge void in its
backfield.
"I played the last five games at left-midfield, but
I had the opportunity
(at forward) today because of Paul," said Bliss, who
had one goal in the
previous 12 games and finished with 14 for the
season. "We dropped Andy
Tripple back to floater and moved me up front."
The new-look Panthers jelled quickly, rebounding
from a 1-0 deficit inside
the first two minutes with two goals by the 28:22
mark. Bliss converted
passes from Brad Belden both times, poking in open
shots at the far post
for a 2-1 lead.
Bliss also received credit for the final goal with
12:24 left in the first
half.
Seward goalie Rob Gillespie (15 saves) charged way
out of his net to
attempt to break up a through ball to Belden,
colliding with Edmeston's top
scorer in the process. The ball popped free to Bliss
near the 18-yard line,
and he looped a shot toward an open net. The ball
bounced backward off
defender Brendan Myers, and Shawn Brown kicked his
last-second clear
attempt into the upper-left corner.
Edmeston's advantage in speed visibly frustrated its
opponents, as did
back-to-back defensive saves by Jacob Bartlett and
Brandon Schulz with
about 13 minutes left. Seward (19-4) then fell apart
down the stretch,
taking three red cards in the last five minutes ?
one for violent conduct
and two for foul language (toward the referees).
"My kids were a little amped up at the end and I'm
not real happy with it,"
Seward coach Bill Steele said. "In fact, I'm a
little embarrassed by it.
"Our conversation (before the game) was, you keep
your head," Steele
continued. "I told the kids that Edmeston deserved
to be here just as much
as they did and if it didn't work in our favor
today, they were to conduct
themselves appropriately and several of them did
not. So, we'll address
that back at school."
Stanton's red card Saturday was for anything but
misconduct. And without
it, Edmeston would have been watching the state
final instead of playing in
it.
"I was told yesterday by a ref that God works in
mysterious ways and I
think that's the truth," said Stanton, who walked to
the National SoccerHall of Fame atrium as a heaping pack of Edmeston
followers chanted,
"Pauly! Pauly!"
Stanton took a red card Saturday with 59 seconds
left in the first overtime
of a Class D state semifinal against Section Seven's
Chazy. Stanton used
his hands to bat away a shot headed into the
Edmeston goal, drawing the
card and setting up a penalty kick. Chazy missed the
pk, and Edmeston went
on to a 1-0 victory on a goal by Barrett Hawes in
the second overtime.
"It's definitely worth it, there's no doubt about
it," Stanton said of
sitting his final high school game in exchange for a
state title. "A
championship is worth more than one person. We get
here as a team, we work
together as a team ? a team effort wins
championships and that's what it's
all about."
Panthers fans rushed the field at the final whistle,
confirming that
Edmeston had given Jim Huntington a state title
after three years with the
program.
"We were pooped," said Huntington, who took a
Gatorade bath from his team
when the game ended. "But when you get to this
point, they sucked it up.
They managed to suck it up enough to pull it out."
Edmeston ended the season on an 18-game unbeaten
streak after back-to-back
losses to Cooperstown and Laurens, on Sept. 8 and
16, respectively. The
Panthers, who also tied Schenevus during the regular
season, will lose
Stanton, goalie Matt Fikes (11 saves), forward Dan
Davoulas and back
Spencer Benjamin to graduation in June. Still,
Edmeston may already be
looking to a state-title run next season as 16
players with
state-championship experience will return next fall.
"We know we'll be able to come back next year and at
least compete," said
junior forward Belden.
Fikes said he's also looking forward to the future.
"Every time you come back into town, we're going to
see this big banner
hanging there," he said. "It just feels great
because it's a
once-in-a-lifetime deal. We never expected to be
this far." |
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