(Photo provided by Ross Cohen/Cortland Voice).
Last night the undefeated McGraw Girls Varsity soccer team defeated the Cincinnatus Lady Lions (4-1) under the lights at SUNY Cortland.
At the beginning of the game, both teams were battling it out in the midfield. However, after 20-minutes in the first half, the Lady Eagles slowly began to rise on top. With sophomore forward Andrea May scoring the first goal of the game off an assist from junior midfielder Bayley Meade; giving the Eagles a 1-0 lead before the end of the first half.
After that, coming into the second half, McGraw began to take complete control of the game. They were keeping possession, connecting passes and pressing Cincinnatus, not letting them get past their own side of the field.
The Eagles then scored a second goal with 33:35 left in the game. The goal came from Meade after shooting it from the left, outside of the box over the keeper’s head.
"It felt awesome and amazing to score that goal," said Meade. "This was my first goal at C-State."
Meade ended the game with a total of one goal and two assists.
McGraw celebrating a goal. (Photo provided by Ross Cohen/Cortland Voice).
Being down 2-0, Cincinnatus desperately kept trying to score a goal in order to get back in the game. They were able to get a few counter attacks, but were not able to penetrate into McGraw's strong defense.
A few minutes later, McGraw scored two goals in less than three minutes, giving them a 4-0 lead, and therefore giving Cincinnatus almost no chance to comeback.
These goals came from freshman midfielder Megan Stull with 22:54 left and senior midfielder Ashley Neff off an assist from Meade with 20:34 left on the clock.
"Cincinnatus is always a strong team, so at halftime we talked about how a 1-0 lead against them doesn't really mean anything," said McGraw head coach Rachel Parker. "We knew that they were going to come back strong in the second half, so it was just about being able to counter that and not letting up."
Then with 2:11 left in the game Cincinnatus freshman midfielder Kyla Sustad was able to put the ball in the back of the net off an assist from junior Deslinn Rutan to make it 4-1. However, by that time it was too late for Cincinnatus to make a comeback.
"This game was a big emotional rivalry, so the key was to just being able to stay composed under pressure on this atmosphere" said coach Parker "The chemistry has just been amazing this year and they are all just working for a common goal."
McGraw remains on top of the CCL table with a 6-0 conference record and a 8-0-1 overall, while Cincinnatus sits at a close second with a 4-1 conference record and a 4-3 overall.
