Averill
Leading the offense for the Averill Park Warriors was Anita Reitano, who scored six goals and assisted on three more. Along with Reitano, Lauren Meyers scored four goals and Mia Tessitore scored three goals and assisted on two more.
Leading in the groundball department were Julia Gelder and Julia Foster, who had four apiece in the midfield position.
As the first half wound down, Scotia was able to outscore Averill Park 3-1, including back to back goals to end the half, to draw to within two goals.
Averill Park entered the break with the 8- 6 lead.
“We were trying to just play our own game,” said Reynolds at that point. “They are a very direct team, who went right to the goal every time, and I don’t know if we got caught up in that and not just playing settled. I thought the game itself was sloppy at that time. Our goalie made some big saves going into halftime and if she doesn’t make those two or three saves, we could be down one.”
Averill Park’s goalie, Skye Taylor, finished the game with seven saves, including some key ones, as Reynolds had mentioned, as the first half came to a close.
The second half was Averill Park’s through and through. Reitano made key plays for goals, including a goal off of a free possession, and Gelder showed off her range by taking a long shot and potting it in the back of the net.
As the clocked ticked down and Averill Park held a pretty strong lead, Reynolds had one message for his team. Keep it simple.
“We just wanted to pass the ball to the open player because we had a couple of minutes there where we were a man up,” said Reynolds. “We wanted to spread them out. Every once in awhile we need to make the perfect pass behind the back, and you hear a lot in sports about keeping it simple.”
Averill Park will see Burnt Hills Wednesday to play for the Section II Class C semifinal at 6:30 p.m. at Mohonasen High School.