By Ted Waddell
GRAHAMSVILLE — November 5, 2004 – If you want the home team to win, take off your shirt and paint blue letters on your chest.
That was thinking of several members of the Tri-Valley varsity football team on Tuesday afternoon.
Those eight players showed up as impromptu cheerleaders at the Section IX Class C girls’ soccer semifinal match between Chester and the host T-V Lady Bears at the Grahamsville Fairgrounds.
The rugged “cheerleaders” then stripped off their shirts to reveal the letters that were painted on their bare torsos. When they stood together in a line, they spelled out the words “Go Bears!”. Sean Drown was the “G”, Jim Walsh the “O”, Andy Garigliano the “B”, Matt Smith the “E”, Dan Knox the “A”, Don Curry the “R” and Joe Garigliano the “S”. And, in an effort not to be outdone by his teammates, Kevin Drown was the exclamation point.
Spurred on by the spirited football players, the Lady Bears played some good soccer and blasted the Chester Lady Hambletonians by a final score of 2-0 in what was the rubber match of the season for the two teams.
In their previous two games during regular soccer season, T-V (12-6) and Chester (9-9) split 1-0 shutouts.
With their seventh straight win and eighth shutout overall this season, T-V, which is seeded second in the Class C tournament, will square off against No. 1 seed Tuxedo this afternoon for the Class C championship. That match is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. at Middletown High School.
In the first half of Tuesday’s semifinal, Megan Drown scored unassisted at 24:47 to give the Lady Bears a 1-0 lead.
Melissa Bachmann gave T-V a 2-0 advantage at 11:29 of the second half when she scored on a direct kick
With six minutes left on the game clock, one of the game’s officials handed out a yellow card to Chester Coach Kevin MacEntee after he ignored that official’s repeated warning to put a proverbial lid on his comments about some calls that – from MacEntee’s perspective – didn’t go Chester’s way.
The goalkeepers in the match were Kaylie Ackerley for T-V and Amanda McCarthy, Amanda Benitez and Katie Wile for Chester. McCarthy and Benitez combined to make seven saves for the Lady Hambletonians.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the outcome,” T-V Coach Mary Feusner said.
Four players from the Lady Bears’ junior varsity squad who were moved up to the varsity team saw playing time in the match.
“They contributed to our cause today,” Feusner said.
“It was a game of strong defense and some good finishes,” she added.