NTL GIRLS SOCCER: WILLIAMSON'S SEASON ENDS WITH LOSS TO TROY IN 1ST ROUND OF DISTRICT 4 PLAYOFFS (2024-10-23)
By: Chris ManningNorthern Tier Sports ReportTOWANDA — Despite a Herculean effort from keeper Ashley Woodring, Williamson eventually wore down in their 4-0 loss to Troy in the District IV, Class AA girls’ soccer quarterfinal playoffs Wednesday.
The Warriors almost made it to halftime 0-0, but with just under three minutes left Troy scored on a corner kick. In the second half they got a quick goal from Alexis McRoberts and slowly pulled away with two more goals late.
Woodring made more than her fair share of highlight saves on the night, finishing with eight while her counterpart, Madelyn Seeley, made three saves.
Troy out shot Williamson 20-8, and had a 4-1 edge in corner kicks. Kyah Renzo, Saydi Renzo, Alexis McRoberts and Emma Lawton all had goals for Troy.
It was Williamson testing out Seeley early, as a free kick by Anna Lee was scooped up by Seeley before Lee's teammates could crash.
Just over two minutes into the contest Saydi Renzo tried Woodring with a hard, low shot that the senior keeper stopped, and eight minutes in Renzi got free on a throw in, forcing Woodring to come out and knock it away from her.
At the 23:10 mark Williamson’s Zeraya Wilson had a shot stopped by Seeley., and after that Troy turned up the pressure .. as in a four minute span three straight Trojan attempts were denied by Woodring.
Troy continued the onslaught into the dying minutes of the first half as a Saydi Renzo left foot attempt was just wide of the post with 4:25 on the clock.
Woodring’s biggest highlight of the night was a leaping save off a Kylee Roy shot that slipped just over the cross-bar for a corner kick with 3:30 on the clock.
However, it set up Troy’s first goal as Roy’s corner kick bounced off McRoberts to Saydi Renzo, who found Kyah Renzo all alone by the right post, where she slid it in past Woodring.
“It actually was exactly how we had it drawn,” said Pratt. “We worked on it for two nights, and that was it. They ran it to perfection, so that’s just a great group of girls that, you show them what you want to get done, and they learn it.”
It was bit ironic, scoring off a corner kick set piece, since last year, in their opening loss to Midd-West, they gave up two goals off of corner kicks.
“I was just like, I need to get a touch on that,” said Saydi Renzo. “Some sort of deflection, and I was just so glad that she was right there.”
Williamson had a last gasp attempt with two seconds on the clock as a long kick from midfield bounced over Seeley’s head, but was wide of the post.
The Warriors also had a chance to tie things up 20 seconds into the second half as a Wilson attempt ended up just wide.
On the other end McRoberts moved up in the formation and got enough space in the right corner of the box to fire a bullet to the left corner as Woodring didn’t even have a chance to react, making it 2-0 with 34:02 left in the match.
Troy continued to fire away as Davies-Grove had a long shot stopped by the keeper, while a Roy give-and-go to McRoberts was about a foot over the cross-bar.
Finally, with 21:04 left in the match Saydi Renzo fired about 14-yards out. Woodring got a hand on it but it wasn’t enough to keep it out of the net.
Woodring continued to get big saves in the final minutes of the match, but with 1:52 left Renzi was bowled over in the box, setting up a penalty kick.
Lawton took it, and punched it in for the 4-0 final.
Williamson finishes with an overall record of 12-7, which includes a 10-2 run to end the regular season.
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PHOTOS: Chris Manning
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