OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman
The Frewsburg girls soccer team celebrates after a Ava Jimerson’s second goal during their Section VI Class C semifinal Tuesday.
FREWSBURG — Whether it be Hultbergs or Jimersons, Wilson’s girls soccer program has to be getting sick of Frewsburg.
Ava Jimerson scored twice and Taytum Jimerson scored Frewsburg’s third goal as the second-seeded Bears eliminated the third-seeded Lakewomen from the postseason for the fourth straight year with a 3-1 win in Tuesday’s Section VI Class C semifinal at the Robert H. Jackson Sports Complex.
“We already knew it was going to be a grind,” Frewsburg head coach Scott Stone said. “We are extremely confident in who we are and what we do. We expect to win every time we step on the field, but we take nobody lightly, especially Wilson.”
Frewsburg will play for its sixth straight sectional crown at 5 p.m. Friday at Allegany-Limestone High School against No. 5 Randolph, which upset No. 1 Holland 2-1 in Tuesday’s other semifinal.
Following Tuesday’s game in Frewsburg, Wilson head coach Jeff Hart said he felt like his team and the Bears were the two best teams in Class C, but the seeding formula prevented them from meeting in a fourth straight final.
“All year we were kind of looking at each other, because we both kind of planned on meeting in the finals, it was just a round too early,” Hart said. “It’s a great program. I came in last year and I knew about it. A lot of it is just trying to close the gap. It’s a well-run program.”
For much of the first half, the game looked like an even matchup as the teams played to a scoreless draw.
But Ava Jimerson, Section VI’s leading scorer with 39 goals on the season entering Tuesday, put her stamp on the game in the 30th minute.
Immediately after Frewsburg freshman goalkeeper Elysse Gruber stopped a Wilson direct kick with a leaping save, she punted the ball toward midfield. After a bounce, Ava Jimerson ran onto the ball and got free behind the Lakewomen defense before scoring past Wilson sophomore keeper Brooke Urban for a 1-0 lead.
“We have one of the best keepers in Western New York and she proved it again today with two punts,” Stone said of Gruber, who was credited with seven saves. “It’s a huge save. She’s always locked in. … You’re going to be hearing her name a lot moving forward. … She is capable of changing games.”
In the 35th minute, a nearly identical scenario took place as Gruber again punted the ball upfield to Ava Jimerson. This time, the Bears’ senior used her body to gain position on Wilson junior defender Rowan Simpson before again scoring low on Urban to give the hosts a 2-0 lead heading into halftime.
“Ava is just a grinder. I said it from the very first game of the year, she is on a mission right now and she won’t be denied,” Stone said. ” … She’s relentless. She plays 80 minutes and you can stop her for a little while, but eventually she’s going to get hers.”
“Honestly, I felt like for 30 minutes, we probably had more scoring opportunities,” Hart said. “Two unlucky bounces get breakaways. That girl is a finisher, that’s what she does.”
But Wilson did not go away in the second half. In fact, the Lakewomen came out strong and pulled within a goal in the 42nd minute.
Senior Marisa Schultz saved a ball along the Frewsburg goal line that nearly went out of bounds, but Schultz passed to freshman Addison Elia, who scored with a perfectly placed shot high into the Bears’ goal above Gruber to make it 2-1.
“I always say being up 2-0 is the worst. … I said at halftime ‘next goal is going to decide this game,’” Hart said. “That’s one of the reasons we came out and went so hard, and got that first goal.”
Frewsburg, which entered Tuesday with just five goals against all season, was not affected by Elia’s team-high 24th goal of the season.
“We have resilience. We talked at halftime that we needed one more goal. We weren’t content with two,” Stone said. “We expected them to probably get one. That’s a good soccer team over there. … We knew we needed three goals to win this game.”
In fact, the Bears regained their two-goal lead less than four minutes later when Taytum Jimerson settled a ball from her younger sister, Jaden, in the middle of the field, beat a Wilson defender to her right, and then scored low toward the goal post to Urban’s right to make it 3-1.
“Taytum made another play,” Stone said. “I can’t say enough about Tatyum and Audrey (Eckwahl) in the middle.”
Frewsburg’s back line, anchored by senior central defenders Kaylee Cappa and Kealy Caflisch, made the lead stand up, clearing nearly every Wilson advance the remainder of the way.
“It’s a team of selfless players. She played center-mid last year and scored a ton of goals,” Stone said of Caflisch. “She knew we were going to need her to drop back if we were going to complete our goal of being sectional champions. She never balked at it … she worked hard all year and now has established herself as what I consider the best defensive player in Class C.”
Now, all that stands between Frewsburg and its sixth straight sectional title, is neighboring Randolph, which will be seeking its first sectional crown in program history. Despite the schools being separated by just over 15 miles, the two squads have not met since the Bears won a Section VI quarterfinal game 5-1 in the COVID-19 season of 2020.
“They beat Portville. I thought it would be a tight game. I’m not surprised at all,” Stone said of the Cardinals’ victory Tuesday. “All I know is that we’re going to be there Friday and we’re ready.”