By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Nearly three weeks ago, the matchup between Greece Athena and Pittsford Mendon was scoreless at halftime when the game was called due to inclement weather.
On Thursday night, the sides needed almost 99 minutes to determine an outcome.
Nora Graff delivered in the second extra-time period as Mendon defeated host Athena, 1-0 in Monroe County Division III action.
Graff took advantage of a second-ball opportunity off a free kick to score her first goal of the season.
VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JENNIFER LAEMLEIN.
“I was surprised,” the senior defender said. “It caught me off guard. I just saw the ball in the air.”
Teammate Charlotte Engin played a service from 40 yards that caromed off the cross bar and into the six-yard box. A clearing attempt fell short and Graff went near post with a header that landed in the back of the net.
98’ Nora Graff wins it. @mendonsoccer 1 Athena 0 pic.twitter.com/552Dfl6LVc
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 27, 2024
“She usually aims for far post,” Graff said referring to Engin. “I was just going to sprint to far post and hopefully get a body on it, but then it hit crossbar and came back out. I was the only person right in front of the goal.”
With the win, Mendon, currently the top seed in Class A, improved to 7-0-1 on the season.
“We’re happy because they’re very good defensively,” Mendon head coach Eric Pritchard said of Athena. “They have a good keeper, strong defenders and they’re tough to get by. The game could have gone either way. I thought it was a good game by both teams.”
And it was going to take a a situation with a rebound to create the slightest lack of organization from either defense to create the winning goal.
“It wasn’t coming from the run of play for us,” Pritchard said. “We’ll take it off the cross bar. It was a good finish by our defender. We just got lucky. We worked on that yesterday in practice, and she did it. It was the first time we worked on scoring off headers in practice.”
Mendon keeper, Kate Crowley, made three saves. None bigger than on a one-on-one attempt from Athena’s Abbey Devine in the opening moments of the first extra-time period.
Massive save from Kate Crowley to start extra time. pic.twitter.com/UsaCt7ND2a
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 26, 2024
The shutout was the seventh this season for Crowley. Mendon has outscored opponents by a combined total of 13-1.
“We’re more balanced this year on defense,” Pritchard said. “They’ve been doing a good job of shutting everything down and keeping things manageable for Kate. She makes all the saves she needs to make. She’s had a great season so far but so has the defense.”
Athena, playing without starting midfielders Haley Drake and Julia Russo, fell to 6-2-1 on the season. The setback was the second in three games for the Trojans.
“I got to give a lot of credit to the girls,” Athena head coach Sal Butera said. “Two of our main pieces of the were missing. They worked hard. Both teams had chances.
“I give a lot of credit to our defense. They played solid. They cleared the ball when they had to and made runs from the back when they had. Unfortunately, we came up short.”
Kate Rayburn starts the rush. Noella Mandell leads Abigail Devine into the open for @AthenaHigh opportunity. HT: Mendon 0 Athena 0 @secvgirlssoccer pic.twitter.com/L7qf7EAget
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 26, 2024
Mendon travels cross town to face rival Pittsford Sutherland for a 1:00 p.m. start on Saturday.
Athena hosts Honeoye Falls-Lima next Monday for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff.
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