By PAUL GOTHAM
GENESEO, N.Y. — Evan Sorge scored in the ninth minute, and the Geneseo Blue Devils (18-1-1) defeated Section VI champion Ellicottville/Franklinville (15-3-1), 1-0 in the NYS Class C Far West Regional at Geneseo High School, Saturday evening.
Sorge ran on to a ball over-the-top of the E/F backline from teammate Brayden Edmunds for a 1v1 opportunity against George Dick and scored his 11th goal of the season.
“Brayden just played a perfect ball,” Sorge said. “I was just thinking that I need to finish this, to win the game. And I just, I don’t know, I turned into autopilot.”
From there, the Geneseo defense including Edmunds, Riley Ferguson and Benton Maloney held the Eagles in check.
“They did an amazing job against those forwards,” Masters said. “That team was very fast, very, physical, and very skilled.”
E/F entered play averaging better than four goals per game having found the back of the net 78 times during the season. The Geneseo defense limited the Eagles to two shots on target for the game and neither were quality scoring chances.
“To shut them out in this game, after getting that early goal, I couldn’t be more proud of the effort,” Masters said. “They were superheroes today, for sure.”
The game presented a unique for Geneseo, the host of this year’s regionals.
“When we heard it was going to be here, it was kind of like, holy cow,” Masters said. “If we win sectionals and then we get to that game? How amazing would that be?
“We got to walk out of our own locker room just like we do on a home game and, you know, it just felt right. It felt right.”
Geneseo will play either Greenville (2) or Northern Adirondack (VII) in the semifinals.
The trip to the final four will mark the third time in Geneseo program history and first since 2018.
“I just can’t believe we get to go back again,” said Masters who coached the 2018 team. “I was always hoping to get another shot. You always want another shot because we haven’t ever won a state title, so I’m hoping that we can do that this time.”
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