By Dean Russin
ONEONTA _ Jenaye Sutton never did it before and she may never do it again.
All that matters, though, is that she did it on a sunny, breezy Sunday at the National Soccer Hall of Fame fields.
"That was her first goal of the season," Schenevus coach Stephanie Banks said of Sutton's finishing touch, which lifted the Dragons to a 1-0 victory over Edmeston in the Tri-Valley League girls soccer championship.
"It's my first goal ever," junior midfielder Sutton clarified.
Sutton seemed to pose little threat tracking the ball on the left side of the field, far away from an action-packed sequence that started with one of several Schenevus assaults on the Panthers' 18-yard box.
Sophomore Mikayla Bookhout emerged from a short-lived scrum near the top-right corner of the penalty box and slid into a shot to the near post before the Panthers' defense could recover. Although Edmeston senior goalie Susanna Johnson had the shot pegged, it was a little too close and a little too hard to stop.
"I should have dove right onto it," said Johnson, a Class D First Team all-state goalie for the 2008 Tri-Valley and co-Class D state champion Panthers, who finished 22-0-2 last season. "My (right) hand hit it. I should have gone at least onto my knees. It just spun right off my glove."
And the ball kept spinning along the goal line, like bald tires on an unplowed winter road, until Sutton ran onto it. Sutton charged from the left side with Kendra Bressett stuck to her outside shoulder and drove a no-doubter into the middle of the net with 13 minutes, 44 seconds to play.
"I was going to finish it," Sutton said. "My coach just yelled at me for not cutting in when the ball is up there, so I was just there that time and I got the goal. ... I was just in the right place at the right time."
Edmeston senior standout Kori Hamm, the reigning Daily Star Player of the Year who earned a share of the same honor from the state in Class D after scoring an area-best 42 goals last season, had trouble finding that spot.
Two games after finishing with a goal and an assist in a 2-1 regular-season win over East Division champion Schenevus (14-1), Hamm was held in check by a speedy Dragons' defense that rarely fell for her sleight-of-foot routines. Cassandra Brown and Katie May mainly pestered Hamm in the midfield throughout, and when she did break into Schenevus territory, the Dragons quickly circled her to extinguish the threat.
"That's what we've been seeing all year," Edmeston coach Melanie Mumbulo said of how defenses are keying on Hamm, whose 23 goals this season are tied with Gilboa's Laura Potter for the area lead. "The other girls need to make sure they open their mouths and let Kori know (defenders are) making the run, which happened quite a bit today. We were just sort of off a little at times when we needed to be on."
The Dragons pinned the six-time defending West Division champion Panthers (11-4-1) into their half of the field for the majority of the final but didn't really challenge Johnson until Bookhout's breakaway, which led to her first assist this season.
"Seeing that goal go in, you have to understand me," said Banks, whose program shared the T-V title with Gilbertsville-Mount Upton in 2001 and last won it outright in 1992. "Even though we scored, it's still 0-0 in my mind. Usually, they don't cheer after a goal, but that was a big one. ... It wasn't a relief. It was a relief when the game was over."
Sophomore Amy Weber nearly made it 2-0 with just under four minutes left, but Johnson came up with a daring save on a point-blank shot. Weber broke free down the right side of the 18-yard box, but Johnson charged out to cut the angle with a double-knee slide and swatted the ball away with both hands.
"You can't practice that," Johnson said. "It's like Kori Hamm coming at you. You can't prepare for that. I can't even prepare for that in practice."
Edmeston pushed hard in the final minutes but failed to get close enough to seriously threaten the Dragons' goal as Schenevus turned to a prevent defense with a series of out-of-bounds clears to drain the clock.
In the end, Schenevus outshot the Panthers, 5-4, and finished with a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks. Winning goalie Catherine Hernandez made one save to help secure the Dragons' 14th shutout this season.
"We executed everything we worked on in practice this week," Banks said. "Everything we talked about, we executed it. Win or lose, that is more important to me."
Fourth-seeded Edmeston and No. 2 Schenevus are on opposite sides of the Section Four Class D Tournament, meaning the two can only meet again this season if each advances to the Nov. 7 final at the Soccer Hall fields.
"You have to move on because if you dwell on it, you're not going to be prepared for sectionals," said Mumbulo, whose team advanced to the 2008 Class D state tournament on penalty kicks after tying Davenport in the Section Four Class D final. "If you don't win, you're onto basketball. So we're ready."
Schenevus 1, Edmeston 0
TRI-VALLEY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP
at Soccer Hall fields
Schenevus0 1 _ 1
Edmeston0 0 _ 0
Schenevus (14-1): Jenaye Sutton 1-0, Mikayla Bookhout 0-1.
Edmeston (11-4-1): None.
Shots-corner kicks: S 5-6; E 4-1.
Goalies: Catherine Hernandez (S) 1; Susanna Johnson (E) 3.
___
Dean Russin can be reached at drussin@thedailystar.com or 607-432-1000, ext. 215.
