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To the final | News, sports, jobs

To the final | News, sports, jobs

The Frewsburg girls soccer team celebrates its second goal in its 3-1 Section VI Class C semifinal victory over Wilson on Tuesday at Robert H. Jackson Elementary. PJ photo by Matt Spielman

FREWSBURG – Whether it’s Hultbergs or Jimersons, Wilson’s girls soccer program must be tired of Frewsburg.

Ava Jimerson scored twice and Taytum Jimerson scored Frewsburg’s third goal as the second-seeded Bears eliminated the third-seeded Lakewomen from the postseason for the fourth straight year with a 3-1 victory in the Section VI Class semifinals C of Tuesday at the Robert H. Jackson. Sports complex.

“We knew it was going to be a grind,” Frewsburg head coach Scott Stone said. “We have enormous confidence in who we are and what we do. We expect to win every time we step on the field, but we don’t take anyone lightly, especially Wilson.”

Frewsburg will play for its sixth consecutive sectional crown at Allegany-Limestone High School on Friday at 5 p.m. against No. 5 Randolph, which upset No. 1 Netherlands 2-1 in Tuesday’s other semifinal.

After Tuesday’s game at Frewsburg, Wilson head coach Jeff Hart said he felt his team and the Bears were the top two teams in Class C, but the seeding formula prevented them from meeting in a fourth straight final.

Frewsburg’s Ava Jimerson fires her second goal of the match for Wilson’s Rowan Simpson. PJ photo by Matt Spielman

“All year we were kind of looking at each other because we were both planning to meet in the finals, it was just a round too early,” Hart said. “It’s a great program. I came by last year and I knew about it. A lot of it is just trying to close the gap. It is a well-run program.”

For much of the first half, the match looked like an even match as the teams played to a scoreless draw.

But Ava Jimerson, Section VI’s leading scorer with 39 goals in the season that started Tuesday, put her stamp on the match in the 30th minute.

Immediately after Frewsburg freshman goalkeeper Elysse Gruber stopped a direct kick from Wilson with a leaping save, she kicked the ball toward midfield. After a bounce, Ava Jimerson ran onto the ball and got free behind the Lakewomen defense before scoring past Wilson sophomore goalkeeper Brooke Urban for a 1-0 lead.

“We have one of the best goaltenders in Western New York and she proved it again today with two kicks,” Stone said of Gruber, who was credited with seven saves. “It’s a huge save. She’s always locked up. … You will hear her name often in the future. … She has the ability to change games.”

Frewsburg’s Taytum Jimerson, right, battles for the ball with Wilson’s Rowan Simpson during the Section VI Class C girls soccer semifinal on Tuesday at the Robert H. Jackson Sports Complex in Frewsburg. PJ photo by Matt Spielman

An almost identical scenario took place in the 35th minute when Gruber again kicked the ball upfield to Ava Jimerson. This time, the Bears senior used her body to gain position on Wilson junior defender Rowan Simpson before scoring another low shot on Urban to give the hosts a 2-0 lead heading into halftime.

“Ava is just a grinder. I said it from the very first game of the year: She is on a mission now and she will not be denied,” Stone said. ‘…She’s ruthless. She plays for 80 minutes and you can hold her back for a while, but in the end she gets hers.”

“Honestly, for 30 minutes I felt like we probably had more scoring chances,” Hart said. “Two unlucky jumps lead to escapes. That girl is a finisher, that’s what she does.”

But Wilson didn’t go away in the second half. In fact, the Lakewomen came out strong and came within a goal in the 42nd minute.

Senior Marisa Schultz saved a ball along the Frewsburg goal line that almost went out of bounds, but Schultz passed to freshman Addison Elia, who scored with a perfectly placed shot high into the Bears’ goal above Gruber to make it 2-1 to take.

Frewsburg’s Audrey Eckwahl takes a shot during Tuesday’s game. PJ photo by Matt Spielman

“I always say that a 2-0 lead is the worst. … I said at halftime, ‘The next goal is going to decide this game,’” Hart said. “That’s one of the reasons why we came out and went so hard and scored that first goal.”

Frewsburg, which entered Tuesday having conceded just five goals all season, was unaffected by Elia’s team-high 24th goal of the season.

“We have resilience. We said at half time that we needed another goal. We weren’t satisfied with two,” Stone said. “We expected that they would probably get one. That’s a good football team there. … We knew we needed three goals to win this game.”

In fact, the Bears regained their two-goal lead less than four minutes later when Taytum Jimerson fielded a ball from her younger sister, Jaden, in the center of the field, beat a Wilson defender to her right and then scored low toward the goal line . goal post to Urban’s right to make it 3-1.

“Taytum made another play,” Stone said. “I can’t say enough about Tatyum and Audrey (Eckwahl) at center.”

Frewsburg’s backline, anchored by senior center backs Kaylee Cappa and Kealy Caflisch, kept the lead rising and cleared virtually every Wilson advance the rest of the way.

“It’s a team of selfless players. She played center last year and scored a lot of goals,” Stone said of Caflisch. “She knew we needed her to drop back if we were going to achieve our goal of becoming section champions. She’s never minded… she’s worked hard all year and has now established herself as what I consider to be the best defensive player in Class C.”

Now all that stands between Frewsburg and its sixth straight sectional title is neighboring Randolph, which will look for its first sectional crown in program history. Despite the schools being just over 15 miles apart, the two teams have not met since the Bears won a Section VI quarterfinal 5-1 in the 2020 COVID-19 season.

“They beat Portville. I thought it was going to be a tight game. I’m not surprised at all,” Stone said Tuesday of the Cardinals’ win. “All I know is that we will be there on Friday and we will be ready.”