GENESEO _ What happens when the No. 2-ranked team in New York takes the field against an unranked opponent that has not played a match in three weeks?
Just ask the Fillmore Eagles, who drove home Saturday as 10-0 victors over the Franklinville Panthers in the Class D girls soccer Far West Regional played at Geneseo High School.
“Credit to Franklinville, they played hard the whole game and that’s a real testament to their character,” said Fillmore coach Jon Beardsley, whose Eagles (19-1-0) advance to next Saturday’s state semifinals at Homer High.
Franklinville (3-14-0) is the only Class D girls soccer team in Section VI so the Panthers were here by default after wrapping up their regular season on October 15. And yes, they were well aware of what they were up against.
“Obviously we were a little overmatched and their experience really showed,” said Franklinville coach Tim Wangelin. “We spent the week just trying be better.”
As impressive as their resolve was, it was clear that Fillmore had more of everything. The first sign of that came barely three minutes into the match when senior Mattie McCumiskey gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead. Just 20 seconds later, it was 2-0 when Kallie Pastorius scored the first of her three goals and by halftime, it was 5-0 with goals from Tenlee Miller and Emalyn Mucher.
At this point, the Eagles had a 15-0 edge in shots and were running with 10 players by choice.
“We were looking to just play our best and move on,” said McCumiskey. “It can be hard to play these games but I thought we did well and accomplished all our goals.”
Speaking of goals, five more came in the second half for Fillmore. Pastorius scored her third of the match less than two minutes in and Miller and Abbey Early also scored to make it an 8-0 game. But when eighth-grader Bella Tucker scored her first varsity goal with 6:42 left, then added a second with 3:18 remaining, the Fillmore bench erupted in cheers.
“I love to see it,” McCumiskey said of the JV callup scoring goals. “We always have a couple of the little girls up for these games and I love to see them grow.”
Up next is the state semifinals for Fillmore but even with Saturday’s mismatch, nothing was taken for granted.
“It’s tough to get to this spot,” said Beardsley. “We’ve done this enough to know so we’re thankful for the opportunity to play in regionals.”
Fillmore plays Cincinnatus of Section III in Saturday’s semifinal at 9:30 a.m. at Homer High School.
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