ATHENS DROPS TWO AT BALDWINSVILLE TOURNAMENT
By: Tim Birney / September 19, 2021
BALDWINSVILLE — It was a tough weekend for the Lady Wildcats, who dropped a pair of decisions at the Baldwinsville Tournament.
On Saturday, Fayetteville-Manlius topped Athens, 5-1. Today, state-ranked New Hartford blanked them, 6-0.
“In
spite of the score, the girls played their hearts out all weekend,”
said Athens coach Rich Pitts. “We had very good game plans and executed a
lot of what I wanted to accomplish.
“We are a better team after
this weekend and just like in years passed, this will battle-test us for
districts and league,” he noted.
Saturday
Fayetteville-Manlius 5, Athens 1
F-M led 2-0 at the half en route to a 5-1 win over Athens Saturday afternoon
Senior
Hannah Walker knocked how a direct kick from 30 yards out to trim the
deficit to 2-1 about 5 minutes after the intermission.
F-M answered in the 53rd minute to make it 3-1, and tacked on two goals for the final margin.
F-M had a 25-2 advantage in shots-on-goal, and a 7-1 edge in corner kicks.
Junior Karlee Bartlow recorded 17 saves in net for the Lady Wildcats
Sunday
New Hartford 6, Athens 0
New Hartford controlled the action on its way to a 6-0 win Sunday afternoon.
“New
Hartford to me is a clear favorite to win a state title,” said Pitts.
“They would beat every team I can think of in District 4. They are
loaded with three or four Division 1 players.
“I can’t say
enough about how well we played,” added Pitts. “Their coach came over
after and told me we gave them a really tough match.”
New Hartford had a 26-1 advantage in shots-on-goal, and a 10-0 edge in corner kicks.
Bartlow registered 19 saves in net for Athens.
Athens, now 3-3, returns to action Wednesday when it hosts Wellsboro, then travels to Shikellamy Saturday.
About the Author
Tim Birney
Tim Birney is the founder / owner of River Road Media Group. He was born and raised in the Valley, graduating from Waverly High School in 1984.
Birney earned an Associate's Degree in Journalism from SUNY Morrisville in 1986 and a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism / Public Relations from Utica College of Syracuse University in 1988. He began his newspaper career at The Daily Review in Towanda in 1989, before moving on to The Evening Times in 1995. He spent more than 10 years at the Times, the last four as Managing Editor.
River Road Media Group includes five sites in "The Sports Reports" family that cover 24 school districts in five counties: Valley Sports Report (launched Aug. 10, 2009), Tioga County (NY) Sports Report (Aug. 13, 2018), and Northern Tier Sports Report (Aug. 31, 2020); Northern Tier West Sports Report (March 15, 2021) Southern Tier Sports Report (Aug. 16, 2021).
