(Photo: The A-P Steuben County-co-champions. In the story, photos of the same kids in third grade)
By Bill Collmer, Hornell Sun Senior Sports Writer
PERRY — The Section V boys’ soccer Class D2 Championship game will be decided tonight on Halloween at Perry high school at 5 p.m. when #1 seed Avoca-Prattsburgh from Steuben County takes on the #3 seed Andover-Whitesville from Allegany County.
Some stats
• A-P outscored their opponents 30-17 during the regular season and has outscored their two sectional opponents 8-0.
• A-P has 10 total shutouts on the season.
• Andover-Whitesville has outscored their regular season opponents, 42-32.
• They have outscored their two sectional opponents, 5-0, and they have five shutouts on the season.
“We’re excited for the opportunity to play for a championship,” said Andover-Whitesville Coach Cody Borden.
Tough Schedules
• Both teams played a tough regular season schedule. Andover/Whitesville had seven losses on the season, but when you look at who they played, it’s a bit deceiving. Two of their losses were to Fillmore, who are playing in the Class D1 Sectional Championship game,. They dropped two to Genesee-Valley/Belfast, who lost in the semifinals 2-1 to Fillmore. GV/B also handed Fillmore their only loss of the season. A/W also lost to Cuba-Rushford and Bolivar-Richburg.
• Avoca-Prattsburgh lost to Genesee-Valley/Belfast, 3-1, early in the season in the championship game of the Portville Tournament then lost twice to Naples and once to Williamson. Naples is 16-0 and plays in the C2 Championship game Saturday and Williamson plays in the C1 Championship game. Naples has outscored their opponents this season 103-6. They defeated A-P, 4-0 on September 22 and 2-1 on October 6.
GOAL POWER: Andover/Whitesville is led by junior Brody Vance who has scored 23 goals and dished out 8 assists while Senior Colton Calladine has scored 12 goals and dished out 17 assists.
“The boys have worked hard this season,” Borden added.
A-P prepares for A/W
John Stamets has been the Coach at Avoca-Prattsburgh for 13 years, the first nine at Avoca as he took over the combined Avoca-Prattsburgh squad in 2021 when the two schools merged for sports.
“They (Andover/Whitesville) are very fast and a physical team. They have two kids that can score at any time,” Stamets said.
When asked who he could compare A-W to that A-P played during the season Stamets said, “Genesee-Valley/Belfast.” GV/B defeated AW 2-1 and 5-0 during the regular season.
Some stats
A-P is led by Junior Carter Button who has 13 goals and 9 Assists. Sophomore J.J Crowder has 8 goals and 4 assists, and Senior Elias Putnam has scored 7 Goals and has one assist.
A-P Senior Goalie Zach Heale has 118 saves in 1,448 minutes in goals for an impressive 0.94 goals against average.
A history of playing together
The Avoca-Prattsburgh boys have been playing together year-round for a very long time.
The Avoca United Football Club (AUFC) was started many years ago and this group of junior boys have played together ever since.
(In the photos below, the current varsity kids at A-P summer soccer and the third-grade team winning the Livingston County League Championship. That group of boys are all juniors on this year’s team)
“Any time the kids are playing it helps but I contribute a lot of our success to AUFC. This program has them playing almost year-round. This group has been playing together since 3rd grade and a couple of them started playing before that. It’s been an excellent feeder program for us.” Stamets said.
Some history
• Prattsburgh defeated Whitesville, 2-0 in the Class D Sectional Championship game in Cohocton in 1993. Avoca defeated Belfast, 2-0 in 2018. Those were the last two boys’ soccer championships for the two schools before combining programs.
Andover has won six Section V championships with the last one coming in Class D2 in 2015. Whitesville won two Section V championships, with the last one coming in D2 in 2011.
Besides Genesee-Valley/Belfast, other common opponents were Hammondsport, Alfred-Almond and Jasper-Troupsburg with both teams defeating them easily.
Andover/Whitesville defeated Hammondsport 5-2, Alfred-Almond, 4-1 and J-T, 6-0.
Avoca-Prattsburgh defeated Hammondsport, 4-0 and 3-1. They defeated Alfred-Almond, 4-0 and swept J-T, 2-0 and 4-0.
A-P has played their best soccer of the season late in the season, they shared the Steuben County Tournament Championship with Canisteo-Greenwood playing to a scoreless tie.
There is rain and strong winds in the forecast tonight so that could play a factor in the outcome of the game.
