By PAUL GOTHAM
WEBSTER, N.Y. — Eliana Coles spent 70-plus minutes on Wednesday evening anchoring a Webster Thomas backline that helped register a shutout.
And when the Titans looked to her for offense, the junior center back delivered.
Coles scored in the 66th minute as No. 4 Thomas (12-3-1) advanced to the Section V Class AA quarterfinals with a 1-nil victory over No. 13 Hilton (4-12-0).
Maggy Auinger lifted a corner kick from the right flag that found Coles on the far post.
“I saw that ball coming, and I just, I went for it,” Coles said. “You’re supposed to always attack the ball on corners.”
The goal was the second of the season for Coles and came on the Titans’ 10th of 11 chances from the corner flags on the night. This without relenting a similar chance for Hilton.
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“That was great having Eliana come up and score on that one,” said Webster Thomas head coach. “She’s great on corner kicks. We practice those a lot and we want to win corner kicks. We’re trying to play off them, and we’ve scored a bunch of goals this year off those.”
66’ Eliana Coles converts on the 10th corner kick opportunity of the night for Webster Thomas to give the Titans a 1-nil lead in Class AA first-round action. https://t.co/oC20zahYAk
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) October 22, 2026
Thomas took a 3-2 decision when the two teams met on October 12th.
Goals didn’t come as easy in the first round sectional game. Hilton’s Olivia Kuczynski made a pair of point-blank saves to keep the game scoreless heading into halftime. The junior keeper finished with nine saves on the night.
“Their goalie was phenomenal; had some crazy saves against us,” Brown said of Kuczynski. “I was a little nervous going into halftime. I was hoping we could put one in. We had a lot of pressure the last five minutes and she had about three saves on us. I was a little nervous just to see how we would come out and react. I thought we did a great job in the second half. We kept up that pressure going, and we continued to get more opportunities.”
On the other end, the Thomas back four of Cole, Hannah Charko, Avery Mogan and Nevaeh Jackson limited Hilton one shot on Titans’ keeper Seraphina Lippa.
“They communicate really well,” Brown said of his defense. “Eliana and Hannah in the center, organize that, and we make sure our outside backs also can attack on the offense as well, too. Nevaeh on one side loves to get up and down, so we shift over and cover. They just do a great job covering space. They played phenomenal tonight.”
The shutout was the seventh of the season for the Titans.
“We wanted to stay composed and possess,” Coles said. “I thought we were really connected and played pretty well.”
Thomas will host crosstown rival, Webster Schroeder (No. 5 seed) in the quarterfinals. That game is scheduled for Saturday.
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