Hatty x 2: The Big 3 Leads CCHS to the Semis

Catholic Central 6, Albany Academy for Girls 2

Speed kills, bruh.

Whenever CCHS had an opportunity to break out, that's what they did, and a brand of offense that looked more like the Steve Nash-era Phoenix Suns just put up numbers on top of numbers by the end of this one.

In the Class B 3/6 quarterfinal, the teams played pretty evenly for the first 10 minutes - certainly to the higher seed's pace. The frenetic, keeper to keeper style certainly favors CCHS. Academy GK Ellie Daly would make a save. CCHS keeper Dominique Stavis would make a save. Lather, rinse, repeat. The Crusaders had a pair of near-misses not far apart from each other, the 2nd coming when an AAG defender nearly deflected it into her own net after Daly knocked a shot away. The same defender raced it down and knocked it away just as it was going to hit the goal line. It didn't take much longer for the home team (on the scoreboard - it was played at Watervliet) to break through. Madison Purcell played a ball to Lauren Drake, who hit a sharp grounder in between keeper and left post.. to use baseball terms. It hit the back of the net, giving CCHS the lead at the 27:51 mark in the 1st half. 7 minutes later, AAG nearly tied it up within seconds when a Taylor Lockwood shot rolled just wide of the right post. A few minutes later, she wouldn't be denied. CCHS defenders played the 'you got it!.. no you got it!.. no one got it!' game on a long ball played toward the box, and Lockwood ended up with a 1 on 1 against Stavis, which she finished to tie it up at the 20:32 point.

That's when Alexis Riffel(I put the team on my)bach woke up. She outworked a couple Academy defenders to get possession and knocked one home while getting knocked over to make it 2-1 with 11:56 left in the half. 4 minutes later, Purcell played a perfectly placed ball to a streaking Riffelbach, and the speed demon raced past who was marking her to get some freedom, and her strike made it 3-1 at the 7:32 mark. A few minutes later, the same thing happened - but she got knocked down in the box. She bagged the ensuing PK, making it 4-1 in the 38th minute. The hat trick took 9:28 of game time to happen. What did you do with your day?

Not as much as her, probably.

The Crusaders dominated possession to start the 2nd half, but didn't break through for a little while. Academy nearly brought it back to within 2 goals, but Stavis made a couple saves - one of them diving to her left - in the matter of 20 seconds. The corner kick after the save was directed away from danger for CCHS, and they made their opponents pay. A Purcell shot was saved by Ellie Daly, just to go to Lauren Drake who poked home her 2nd goal of the day while getting knocked down herself, making it 5-1 with 24:56 left. The bright moment of the day for AAG was their final goal. Valerie Taylor, a senior headed to Union College next year to play soccer, booted one from 30 yards out that Stavis got a hand on to knock out of play. After her ensuing corner kick eventually was played back out to her, she took one touch and sent home a straight laser from the 18 on the left side. Hardest shot of the night by far, I felt bad for the ball for a minute. Beautiful goal, but it still only counted as 1 so the score was 5-2 with 13:55 left. CCHS finished one off for good measure when Drake headed home a Purcell corner to make it 6-2 with 7:30 remaining. With the win, 3rd seeded Catholic Central advances to the Class B semis, where they take on the 2 seed Hoosick Falls at Lansingburgh HS later this week. Put a few studs up top that know what to do with the ball, you can beat almost anyone!

Gotta show some love to Val Taylor... Dangerous with the ball every time it was at her feet.

 #ByTheNumbers - My pen almost died from writing so much. CCHS outshot Albany Academy 31-20 (really.. 51 shots might be a new record amount that I've seen). Corner free game basically though - I missed the first couple minutes, but only saw a 2-1 edge for CCHS. Ellie Daly made 10 legitimate saves while I was there and controlled it 9 other times. Stavis had 7 & 6, and her action came in spurts. Goal kicks were even at 5. AAG is far from the first team Catholic Central unloaded on. The Crusaders now have 87 goals on the year. Alexis Riffelbach - a junior - is at 36 goals on the season, which now leads Section II by one. Her 17 assists is tied for 7th. Madison Purcell had 4 assists on the night, bumping her up to 29 which leads Section II by five. Her 25 goals is good for 6th. Lauren Drake is in the top 25 in the section for both as well - her hatty bumped her up to 17 goals (T-21st) and she has 10 assists (T-25th). The 3 combined have all but 9 of the Crusaders' goals this season. The big 3!

The Rest
CCHS student section's chill button broke a long time ago. They were buggin' out all game, even think I heard Sharkiesha out of them... Albany Academy's students won response of the year when they dropped the 'It's alright, it's ok. You'll all work for us someday!' retort to 'Scoreboard'. Score 1 for the Cadets. Needed a few more on the field though... It was cold. In case anyone was wondering... Hoosick Falls beat CCHS 4-3 this year. It was the first game of the season though, things have changed... I think Lexi Riff just scored again.