Photos by MAKENNA DUNBAR, Story by CHRIS BROOKS
WELLSVILLE — It is the back-to-back set of their season.
Beginning to slowly eclipse its way over the horizon, two gigantic matchups for the Lions of Wellsville to undertake. With a momentum boost stemming off their brilliant performance against Bolivar-Richburg last week, their goal was to apply as much as they could with the Avon Riverhawks (7-2-1) — one of Section V’s storied soccer clubs, in town on Tuesday to serve as their first obstacle of a tough 24-hour gauntlet in the Lion’s Den.
For the vast majority of the Class B war being waged across the pitch, the Lions remained side-by-side with the Riverhawks. With more and more time whittling away off the scoreboard, the window of opportunity in regulation was also beginning to close. With Avon doing everything in their power to stack the pressure on the Lions against the wall, they never broke.
Instead, they turned it into momentum of their own. And alas, a game-winning goal came from it.
Just ask Aiden Cowburn.
The Wellsville senior was Johnny on the Spot at the right place and at the right time with nearly 10 minutes remaining in regulation. After many cracks into the ice, Cowburn was the first to demolish right through it, as he delivered the game’s only goal to put the Lions on top for good. Following the goal, the defense would then tighten the seat belt and stave off one final advance from their opposition to secure their biggest win of the campaign — a 1-0 blank of the Riverhawks.
After many minutes of scoreless soccer on the pitch, Wellsville (4-2-4) managed to climb their way onto the scoreboard in the most opportune of times with the aid of Cowburn, who received the ball off a big boot downfield from Lucius Griggs, and then, a pass from behind from Evan Billings following an errant Avon trap in their defensive zone, as he went on to beat out two Riverhawks defenders to rocket an absolute seed into the far side of the net for the 1-0 lead with 12:31 left to play.
Despite allowing the marker, Avon was provided one final opportunity to formulate a reciprocation to Wellsville with under three minutes left to play, as the Riverhawks sent a big ball directly to the front of the Lions cage where Gavin Haggerty leapt up to meet it with a determent away from the front, only for the ball to be airmailed back in moments later.
But the Lions defense withstood the test of time to direct the final opportunity away from danger one last time to keep the visitors off the board.
The Riverhawks outshot the Lions by a 9-7 count, with Haggerty recording the shutout by making all nine saves he faced.
In a quick turnaround tonight, the Lions will now look to keep the gas down with another tough visit in store, this time from the State-ranked and undefeated Campbell-Savona Panthers at 7 p.m.
