Photo by Keith Lobdell
Elizabeth Roberts tracks down the ball for NCCS against Plattsburgh High’s Pema Dolkar in the Class B girls championship game.
CHAZY | The confidence Northeastern Clinton had over the past two weeks was still there Oct. 27, as a pair of goals late in each half earned the Lady Cougars the Class B sectional title with a 2-0 win over Plattsburgh High.
Elizabeth Roberts scored in the 34 minute of play and Marlie Sample gave her team an insurance tally in the 77th minute as Katerina Emerich made three saves to complete the shutout.
“This game, we came out and had another game plan that we were able to execute,” coach Tim Surprenant said. “The girls did a fantastic job. I was a little worried at the beginning after beating Beekmantown and having a let down, but they wanted this and came out aggressive. We had some golden opportunities at the beginning to score, with some low parts, but we came to play and executed our game plan the way I wanted.”
“It was exciting,” said sweeper Kya McComb. “It was back and forth and my job was not to let them get past me. I though we were more physical on the ball and controlled ourselves. We kept our heads and we carried our momentum from the last game and brought it here.”
“I’m actually really excited, It is an honor to be a Section VII champion,” said Katelyn Southwick, who was charged with marking PHS all-star Brinna Micheels throughout the game. “I stuck with her the whole game and tried to make sure she hardly got the ball.”
“We went out there and played our hardest and came out with the win,” said goal-scorer Roberts. “We transitioned into a 5-4-1 at Beekmantown that worked for us. Plattsburgh had a top scorer and that play helped us.”
The Cougars will next play Potsdam in the Class B regional semifinals Wednesday, Nov. 1, in Ogdensburg at 8 p.m.
“We are going to continue working on what we have done all year,” Surprenant said. “We are gelling it at the right time now. We need to do our fundamentals. We need to get first touches, work on our passes and keep playing with intensity. All those things we’ve been working on since the beginning of the year and we will be fine.”
