Hornell knocks off Bath Haverling
BY DERRICK BALINSKY HORNELL TRIBUNE

PENN YAN - When it was all said and done, Sandy Hillman took a step back and breathed one final, deep sigh of relief. Hillman's Red Raiders had secured a spot in the sectional final.

Hornell bounced sixthseeded Bath Haverling from the Section V, Class BB bracket, posting a 2-0 shutout in Tuesday evening's, Oct. 30, semifinal contest hosted by Penn Yan. The second-seeded Red Raiders moved on to the champion ship round, where they faced No. 1 Livonia Friday, Nov. 2, in Rochester.

"Amazing. It's starting to set in," Hillman said on advancing to the Section V title game in just her first year as head coach of the varsity team at Hornell.

"This team has been fighting all season," said Ashtin Argentieri, who scored the first goal of the game. "That's the biggest thing I can say. We've been taking it one game at a time all season and this next one will be the biggest of them all. It's like the final exam."

Argentieri, a freshman, knocked in the second goal of her varsity career at the 31:50 mark of the second half, netting a pass from senior Jordan Brungard to give Hornell a 1-0 lead.

"Communication. When you have an opponent sending so many numbers up through like Hornell does there just has to be a commitment to sorting out the marks," Bath head coach Tuesday Mishook said. "There was some miscommunication or even a lack of communication. That hurts against a quality team such as Hornell because when you have those breakdowns they are going to capitalize on it."

Hillman noted the importance of scoring first and not having to play from behind.

"Huge. On that goal there were some beautiful passes starting from the outside with Charise Nanivell, who passed it into Jordan Brungard, who passed it up in," Hillman said. "You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful team goal. Ashtin just did a great job of finishing, it was great."

The second half proved to be a tale of two different teams. After playing to scoreless tie over the first 45 minutes one would figure the Rams would be inspired by their first-half performance.

The flow of the game, however, proved to be quite the opposite. And, for Hornell, the intensity only seemed to pick up.

"We talked a lot about that at the half," Hillman said. "Not that we weren't intense in the first half, we were just very tight. We didn't play like we were capable of playing. They played with some more intensity, but they were also more relaxed. They played the game that we had been playing all year; they started playing the brand of soccer that they are capable of playing. It was a big difference in the game.

"I knew that we could make a few minor adjustments at halftime and we did," Hillman continued. "We took over the second half. Bath played an excellent game and hung in for the whole game. I just felt like we had some momentum even though it was 0-0. It certainly didn't seem like it was going to end up that way."

"Flat. Definitely flat in the second half," Mishook said. "You never know what is going to happen in the first five minutes and that's a very, very critical stage of the game. We started off the first five minutes without any fire behind us and they capitalized on that. They really came at us and started to possess the ball a bit more. I thought in the first half the game was played more evenly than it was in the second half. They won the individual battles at most of the positions and obviously put the ball in the back of the net."

Nankivell added what would turn out to be an insurance goal with 9:05 remaining. While the goal was unassisted, some nifty footwork from Shawna McNeil helped set up Nankivell's great individual effort.