The Next Wave
Tri-Valley And Eldred Work Assiduously To Improve As Teams Look To Fill In For Grads And Injured Players; Lady Bears Come Away With A League Win As Offense Comes On Strong In Second Half
Tri-Valley 3, Eldred 0
By RICHARD A. ROSS
rross@sportsinsightsny.com
Scenes from a league clash between host Tri-Valley and visiting Eldred (clockwise): Tri-Valley junior Mareena DiMilia controls the ball before heading upfield to score on a breakaway. Eldred junior keeper Julia Wilk goes airborne to punch a ball out of harm's way. Wilk is filling in for Kayla Flieger who was injured and out for the season. Eldred's Shannon Brucher fires a ball by a ducking Rachel Adriaans in a heated encounter. T-V senior Sarah Schneyer throws in. As sweeper, Schneyer is a great defensive asset for the Lady Bears.
GRAHAMSVILLE, NY—For the first time in my ten years of sports coverage, I didn’t begin my fall season with a visit to Tri-Valley in the first week of September for the annual Tri-Valley tournament. That first-week view of Tri-Valley, Monticello, Eldred and Ellenville always struck me as a great way to begin my fall.
Coach Mary Feusner’s tournament had history and class and it was always competitive, impeccably well-run and a great opportunity to see four fine teams in one fell swoop.
Tri-Valley senior Rachel Adriaans heads upfield as Eldred' senior Caitlin Hallock shadows her.
But sadly this year there was no tourney due to the burgeoning size of Division V with its seven teams. That left Class D Family School and Chapel Field with fewer league games as Livingston Manor/Roscoe now joined Eldred, Tuxedo, S.S. Seward, Fallsburg, Chester and Tri-Valley as part of the new “C” scape.
Consequently the vaunted tourney went by the wayside to accommodate the demands of the changing array. I for one, hope to see it return in coming years.
September came and went and racing around trying to keep up with all varsity sports primarily in the five school districts I blanket, I realized that here it was October and that I had yet to see either T-V or Eldred play.
So apologetically I crossed the field as the teams were warming up to say hello Coaches Mary Feusner and Kelly Robertson of T-V and Eldred respectively and to convey my regrets on my tardy arrival to their seasons now at their midpoint.
One quick glance around the field apprised me of just how much talent went out the door last June and the preponderance of younger players inhabiting the pitch. For Eldred the loss of icons like Kim Elvin, Meaghan Hazen, Diana Schombs and Sam Ferguson were made worse this fall by a spate of injuries that have seen season-ending injuries to senior starting keeper Kayla Flieger, junior Kayln Drasher, sophomore Nicole Elvin and freshman Angie Schadt. Another freshman, Lauren Frey is out for a couple of weeks leaving Robertson with a paper thin bench.
“Angie and Lauren played forward in the early part of the season and now we have other people filling in those spots, “Robertson noted.
Luckily Eldred has junior Jackie Terry back now. She was out with an injury too.
Back in action following an injury, Eldred junior Jackie Terry is doing her part to make things happen. Here she sends a ball destined to go out of bounds back up the field.
While a number of Eldred’s current players were on varsity last year, they saw little playing time I the upper-class dominated array of Lady Yellow Jackets. To make matters worse, there is no junior varsity team this year so that valuable training is now being undergone in varsity games against much-more seasoned opponents , especially in schools like Tuxedo, Seward and LMR.
As for Tri-Valley, graduation marked the exit of great talent in Jakki Pugh, Emma Tingley, Kathryn Schneyer and Agnes Pompeii, just to name a few. MIP Caroline Martin transferred to Monticello and did return to T-V, but too late to play this year.
For Feusner, losing dynamic striker/midfielder Katlynn Greffrath to a knee injury has certainly hurt a team already struggling on offense.
But as is the case with all teams, players left in the fold must step up and form the next vanguard. There is no looking back.
Tri-Valley kicked off and Eldred looked to be aggressive early on. Eldred was doing a good job of keeping it in the T-V end. For her part, Schneyer was busy turning it right back upfield. For the first few minutes the ball remained in the T-V end until the Lady Bears made a brief run up the right side that Eldred turned back.
“Nobody’s making runs out there,” barked Feusner. “This is not a game to stand still. Make the runs!”
Around and through: T-V's Mareena DiMilia gets the ball by eldred's Abigail Ellert on her way towards making a breakaway shot on goal.
Eldred senior Breanna Brucher’s shot went wide left. T-V pushed it back and a shot off of the back of Rachel Adriaans was saved by Wilk. The ball went into the Eldred end and they were unable to clear it. A minute later Amanda Tyndell buried one inside the right post at 12:17 for the 1-0 Lady Bears’ lead. The goal was unassisted.
T-V junior Mareena DiMilia had a nice shot but Wilk made a great deflection of the ball for the save.
The Lady Bears kept up the pressure but crosses to Tara Kaplan and Emily DiToro failed to register. When Eldred did advance the ball now, it was quickly turned back. Eldred breakaways up the middle of the field were missing players on the wing and conversely, runs up the sideline were not supported by players in the middle to take the cross.
“We’ve been trying to work on Breanna and Alexis sending balls to the flags and getting our forwards to work it back in but it did not work for us today. I thought we really started out strong today especially with Hannah Bisland going up the line but she had trouble finishing today,” Coach Robertson would later note.
DiMilia began to work a number of breakaways where she would pick up the ball at her own 15 or 20 and use her speed to go around and Eldred defender. Other Lady Yellow Jackets were not coming over to cut off her advance and it was only a matter of time before she would score.
The first half ended with T-V leading 1-0 but DiMilia picked right up where she left off and scored at 4:17 to make it two-zip.
DiToro made it three-nothing with a goal at 28:03 as Tri-Valley appeared far fresher in the second half versus an Eldred team that was showing signs of fatigue.
Eldred senior Breanna Brucher uses her speed to get by Tri-Valley's Tara Kaplan but the Lady Yellowjackets failed to support such runs which faltered throughout the afternoon.
Robertson agree that fatigue was a factor. “They’re running a full 90 minutes without a strong sub for them. With all the rain we’ve been running indoor practices,” she added.
“I am happy with the play that the girls gave their all,” she said though she had told her team at the game’s conclusion that they had failed to capitalize on upwards of 20 shots on goal. Julia Wilk served as keeper the first half and Heather Hallock took over in the second half. “Julia has been my main goalie since Kayla Flieger got hurt. This is Julia’s first year being our main goalie and even though Heather is a ninth grader she seems to have really good skills too. Julia gets pretty big in the goal and our defenders know to back off when she’s got it,” she added.
Eldred is now 1-6-1 (0-6-1 OCIAA).Their win came against Family School and they tied Fallsburg. Tri-Valley improved to 4-6 (2-6 OCIAA). Prior wins came against Family School, Fallsburg and Chapel Field.
Feusner noted, “We played a better second half today. We were down a sub or two so we got everyone involved. I was pleased with the opportunities we had in the box. We didn’t always put the ball in the back of the net but we had lots of opportunities in both halves and we haven’t always had that this year.”
Feusner went on to say, “We’ve been in the defensive end way too much.” Speaking of defense, Feusner had great praise for senior sweeper Sarah Sc hneyer. “You need a strong player at that position and Sarah fits the bill. We tried her at flatback earlier this season and it was working. We were getting a lot of offsides traps but they were telling me they were not comfortable with it if someone got past they didn’t have the confidence to be back there without Sarah.”
Feusner felt her team played well and noted that Mareena DiMilia had one of her best games of the season. Keeper duties were shared by Ashley Exner and Erin Smith. Exner had four saves and Smith had three.
Tri-Valley will host Family School on October 7, while Eldred visits S.S. Seward. T-V and Eldred will meet again under the lights on the Lady Yellow Jackets’ pitch on October 19.
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