After the way Kane won its quarterfinal playoff game on Monday night, Port Allegany was expecting a strong challenger that had plenty of intensity on Wednesday.
And they got it.
The top-seeded Gators were given everything they could handle from the fifth-seeded Wolves in the District 9 Class AA semifinals at Bradford High School, but prevailed with a late goal off the foot of Howie Stuckey to advance to its third consecutive title game.
Kane entered the game riding high following a dramatic 2-1 victory over Brookville. The Wolves scored the game-winning goal in that contest with 26 seconds remaining in double overtime and certainly carried that momentum into the first half against Port A.
“Kane played a really good game defensively,” Port Allegany head coach Aaron Clark said. “We weren’t sure what to expect from Kane because we played poorly against them in our first two matches (the Gators won 2-1 and 5-2) and they came out with some real intensity.”
It was a physical first 40 minutes, with each team trading some quality chances. Port’s Brandon Peterson and Kane’s Brennan Schultz each had to make a few tough stops in net during the early minutes of the half before the defenses tightened up before the intermission.
In the second half, however, the Gators started to dominate possession and control the chances with a Gator goal seemingly inevitable.
“We weren’t positive that we would be able to play a ball possession-type game against them because they possessed the ball against us and we more so played defense and counter-attacked the first two times,” Clark said. “This turned into a game where we possessed the ball and they played the counter game.”
All of that possession finally paid off for the Gators at the 18-minute mark of the second half. Port Allegany worked the ball in the middle of the field to Stuckey, and the Gators’ junior striker fired a bullet from the 15-yard-line just past a diving Schultz and into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.
“That was just Howie doing hard work,” Clark said. “That was pretty much all him on that. The midfielders near the end were just getting sucked back on defense and they weren’t consistently getting enough pressure up top. We told (our strikers) that if they got a quality opportunity to just put it on net because we were confident we could put something in net on (Schultz).”
There was no quit in the Wolves, however, after Stuckey’s tally. Kane had several quality chances on net over the game’s final 15 minutes, but none better than back-to-back shots on net with less than a minute remaining.
Patrick Detsch fired a point-blank shot on Port Allegany goalie Brandon Peterson that was turned aside before a rebound chance was sent over the net. It would prove to be Kane’s final opportunity, but one where Peterson had to make his biggest stop of the season.
“Brandon saved our season down there at the end,”Clark said. “He didn’t make many saves, but the saves he made were huge. He played a heck of a game.”
Peterson and Schultz both finished the contest with eight saves.
The win sets Port Allegany up with a date against St. Marys (2-0 winners over Punxsutawney on Wednesday) at a date, time and location to be determined next week.
That game will be Port’s third consecutive trip to a district title game, but first in the Class AA classification.
And while the Gators have been no strangers to deep postseason runs under Clark, this is their first such trip under the co-op agreement with Smethport. The Hubbers have five seniors on the team who each play vital minutes on a team that is determined to avenge their title game loss from last season.
“They are going to be used to it by (the St. Marys game),” Clark said. “I think they caught on pretty quickly and the Hubbers that are on roster were a huge part of the win tonight. I’m not worried about them, and they’ll be just fine for the game next week.”
