OLEAN — On Wednesday, the Olean boys soccer team, as a massive underdog, had played its heart out in hanging with mighty Allegany-Limestone in a 1-0 loss.
It might have been asking a bit too much of the Huskies, coach Jim Charles agreed, for them to play with the same kind of focus and energy less than 24 hours later.
Oh, Olean managed to carry some of that momentum into its first-round matchup of its own tournament on Thursday afternoon — it managed to bring a 1-1 tie into halftime. But, quickly drained, perhaps, after its effort the night before and playing another tough Portville team, it couldn’t quite sustain it, falling to the Panthers, 5-2, in a 3:30 p.m. Olean Tournament start.
Portville scored three goals in quick succession after the break to turn a tie game into a 4-1 cushion. Brady German tallied off a Michael Cole pass in the 65th minute and then Cole notched a pair of goals just minutes later, one unassisted, the other off a feed from Bryan Randolph. Cole Faulkner scored the first-half goal while Braeden Carter completed Portville’s scoring in the 79th minute, with German aiding on both.
Quintin Allen and Al Linderman each scored while assisting on each other’s goal for Olean (0-4).
“Having the late game last night, my guys were just flat,” Charles said. “We were worn out, we just had a lot of mental errors in the second half. We put some fresh legs in there today, but they were just tired. We got home late (on Wednesday), it’s the first week of school, it was just really too much to ask of our guys. Give them credit, they gave it everything they had, they just ran out of gas.”
Troy VanSickle made five saves for the Panthers (2-1-1), who will meet Hornell in Saturday’s championship game. Josh Gardner turned away nine shots for Olean, which will play Pioneer in the consolation game.
NON-LEAGUEOLEAN TOURNAMENTHornell 7, Pioneer 1OLEAN — Jack Emo racked up four goals and Hornell took a 6-0 halftime lead en route to the victory.
Liam Khork posted two goals as he and Emo accounted for all of the first half scoring. Alfie Whitely added a goal for the Red Raiders (2-1)
Pioneer fell to 0-3.
SCIO TOURNAMENTCuba-Rushford 2, Andover/Whitesville 1SCIO — After downing A/W 6-4 in a high-scoring game three days earlier, Cuba-Rushford took a 2-0 lead and held on in a tighter affair.
Braeden Wight tallied off a Jacob Smith feed just three minutes in and Tanner Lewis added an insurance goal early in the second half for the Rebels (2-0). Jack Frank came up with seven saves.
Colton Calladine scored on a penalty kick in the final four minutes and Landyn Ordway stopped 10 shots for Andover/Whitesville.
“I kind of warned them it was going to be a different game from when we played them in the rain on Monday,” said C-R coach Nick Perillo, whose team will meet Bolivar-Richburg in Saturday’s championship. “This game was much cleaner, drier, and they definitely came in with a plan to stop our scoring, and it worked pretty well for them. Our two goals were really our only clean looks; I’m proud of those guys for pulling them off.”
Bolivar-Richburg 4, Scio/Friendship 0SCIO — Reiss Gaines notched a hat trick, including a pair of first-half goals to give Bolivar-Richburg the early advantage in a first-round win.
Gaines scored off a Landon Barkley feed eight minutes in and an Aydin Sisson pass midway through the period to give the Wolverines (4-0) a 2-0 halftime lead. His third goal came off a Barkley pass at the 23:39 mark of the second half.
Braden Zilker scored in the closing minutes, with Sisson helping, as both he and Barkley finished with two assists. David Abdo earned the shutout with five saves.
“The boys played very well as a team and I’m very proud of them,” B-R coach Mike Zilker said. “They are starting to understand the team-first, me-second mindset and it’s fabulous to see. They work hard and they each do their job and the team gets a victory.”
Landon Arnold made seven saves for Scio/Friendship (0-2).
