DRYDEN –– The Marathon boys soccer team dominated Odessa-Montour from pillar to post for a 4-0 win in the IAC Small Schools championship game Saturday at Tompkins Cortland Community College.
The Olympians were all over the Grizzles from the opening whistle, getting good looks on goal in the first five minutes. Marathon peppered the Odessa-Montour backs, but couldn’t get past goalkeeper James Halpin until the 24:52 mark.
Colton Oram hit a half volley off the hands of a diving Halpin, and the ball rolled in the goal.
That opened the floodgates, as Barrett Trabucco scored off a feed from Oram 3:41 later. Trabucco and Halpin collided on the play and Halpin left the game for the second time and didn’t return.
Oram was a menace all game, but had a massive impact in the first 20 minutes. He thought the Olympians were playing great team soccer and it allowed him to be great.
“We were moving the ball very well, finding feet and our through balls were really good (Saturday),” Oram said.
Things got very chippy after the second goal, with Odessa-Montour midfielder Patrick Croft shoving Marathon’s Alex Decker to the ground to draw a yellow card. Bodies were flying the rest of the game, more than five Odessa-Montour players went down injured the rest of the way and Croft was threatened with another card by an official.
Marathon beat Odessa-Montour 6-1 on Sept. 24 and knew what it was getting into Saturday. Senior captain Robbie Anderson was pleased his guys got off to a hot start to keep the Grizzlies at bay.
“It was pretty important because with some of those players, if you hold onto the ball they’re going to knock you down,” Anderson said. “If we can put away as many as possible and get rid of all the uncertainty in the game, that’s good.”
Aydan Brown took over for Oram for the last two goals. He assisted on a Kooper Cornell tally with 13:46 left in the first half, then put away a goal of his own 5:35 before the break.
There was no scoring in the second half, but Eli Ticknor had a few opportunities to extend Marathon’s lead.
Marathon was back in the IAC title game for the first time in a few years after being on the wrong end of its rivalry with Southern Cayuga. Anderson was happy to get the title back in Marathon and wrest it away from its rival.
“It feels really good,” Anderson said. “We’re looking for every opportunity to take everything away from them as much as possible. If we get through the second round of sectionals we’ll face them again and that will be a big game and a big test, then we go on to the finals.”
No. 3 Marathon will face the winner of No. 6 Oxford and No. 11 Delhi in the Section IV Class C quarterfinals at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Marathon High School.
