See more photos by Chris Cecere here
By TIM IRVING
“If the Genesee Region League doesn’t prepare you for a Sectional run, nothing will. It’s a tough league.”
Byron-Bergen coach Wayne Hill and his Bees one of four teams from that league to advance to the girls small school semifinals. They scored three early second half goals to beat Bishop Kearney 5-2 and advance to Friday’s Class C2 final.
They’ll face Harley Allendale Columbia, who defeated another GRL rep, Kendall, in double overtime.
Before the midway point of the first half, the Kings got on the board as Section V’s leading scorer, Kaia Goode, tipped the ball over the keeper for her 54th goal of the season.
“She is electric and she took us to task on that first goal,” Hill said of Goode. “Historically, we start slow but we’re usually not scored on before we figure it out.”
It took another seven minutes before the weather helped Byron-Bergen (16-3) equalize. Sasha Schramm hit a low, hard shot on the wet turf at Brockport and it skidded off the hands of the keeper and allowed Emma Starowitz to score the tying goal.
From there, the Bees owned a majority of the possession and with eight minutes left in the half, Mackenzie Hagen broke free on the left side and the sophomore scored into the left side netting for a 2-1 Bees lead.
A minute and half into the second half, eighth-grader Mia Gray got to the goal line on the left side and played a ball across that Schramm put in for a 3-1 lead.
A few minutes later, Hagen broke free for another breakaway and a 4-1 lead.
Freshman Ava Gray put it away with a free kick that caromed off the Kearney wall and under the crossbar.
“We’ve got a great mix from every grade, all the way up through, JV is super strong, only lost one game all year, “ Hill said.
Goode finished the scoring with 10 minutes left to finish her senior year with 55 goals.
Hill and his team will check out HAC some more before Friday’s Championship game. “They got the worse of the weather and they’re a very good team, they’re in the Finals but they might not have shown everything they have.”
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