There was plenty of snow Thursday at New Hartford High, so Brandon Lane started an avalanche.
Lane scored twice in the first half Thursday to rally third-seeded Cooperstown to a 3-1 boys soccer victory over No. 2 Bishop Ludden in a Section Three Class C semifinal that featured about 20 minutes of driving snow, Redskins coach Frank Miosek said.
"Everything was frozen," said Miosek, whose team fell, 3-0, to Fabius-Pompey in a 2008 sectional semifinal. "It was the hardest snowstorm I've seen in a long time."
Will Dykstra contributed a second-half goal for the Redskins (15-3), who got seven saves from winning goalie Kevin Huggins en route to an appearance in the Section Three final against fifth-seeded Bishop Grimes. Miosek said the date and site of the championship game should be set today. He added the two teams likely will meet Saturday or Monday.
Bishop Grimes advanced with a 3-2 victory over top-seeded Frankfort-Schuyler in Thursday's first semifinal at New Hartford.
Bishop Ludden (14-3) opened the scoring 3 minutes, 4 seconds into Thursday's semifinal.
"There was a melee in front of the goal," Miosek said. "Nobody cleared it and they pushed the ball in from 1 yard out."
Lane tied it off a restart with 18 minutes left in the opening half, scoring on a 25-yard shot from the left side to the upper-right corner of the Ludden net. Lane's go-ahead goal came 15 minutes later.
"He did one of his super efforts and scored from 8 yards after beating two or three defenders in the box," Miosek said.
Jake Chase set up Dykstra for the last goal, hitting his target with a back-pass to the 25-yard mark. Dykstra sent a shot inside the far post with 24 minutes to play for the final margin.
"After that, we just played good defense and (Huggins) came up with several key saves on restarts," Miosek said. "We had five yellow cards and Bishop Ludden had six. It was a very physical game with a lot of taunting."
Cooperstown finished with an 18-10 edge in shots. Miosek said Bishop Ludden statistics were unavailable because the poor weather ruined the Redskins' scorebook.
Cooperstown 3, Bishop Ludden 1
SECTION FOUR CLASS C
Semifinal at New Hartford High
Cooperstown2 1 _ 3
Bishop Ludden1 0 _ 1
3-Cooperstown (15-3): Brandon Lane 2-0, Will Dykstra 1-0, Jake Chase 0-1.
2-Bishop Ludden (14-3): N/A.
Shots-corner kicks: C 18-3; B 10-1.
Goalies: Kevin Huggins (C) 7; N/A (B) 8.
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