Emily Petrella capped a Homer comeback with an overtime winner to dump rival Cortland 2-1 Thursday night at Cortland Jr./Sr. High School.
After creating opportunities for herself all game, Petrella found herself on a breakaway late in extra time and used the space to beat Cortland goalkeeper Darah Peck and call game for her Trojans.
The win wasn’t always a sure thing for the Trojans, who saw themselves down early after conceding a goal to forward Quinn Dodds. Cortland, which celebrated its seniors Thursday night, was determined to give its rivals everything it could handle.
“The theme of the season has been that we never stop fighting,” Homer head coach Rachel Parker of her team’s ability to play through adversity. “Whether we have to come from behind or it’s just a tough game, they’ve proven that they won’t get down on themselves, they keep their head in the game and just keep fighting.”
Homer continued to fly around on offense and look for scoring chances. However, the Purple Tigers had learned from their previous matchup.
“In our last game (against Homer) we were up 1-0 at halftime, and then we let in a second half hat trick to one player (Reese Kline), so our main goal was to stop her,” Cortland head coach Brandon Prosser said. “So we used one of our faster and stronger players to do that. We did a good job stopping her. She still got some good opportunities, but she was our main focus.”
While Cortland effectively shut Kilne down for the evening, the Trojans still put plenty of shots on goal. Peck held strong in goal with 11 saves for the game.
“We always want to score more,” Parker said. “We do a great job creating opportunities, we just need to convert on more of them.”
Eventually, Emma Poli secured control of the ball on the doorstep and tapped it in for the equalizer. The two teams remained level for the entirety of the second half before the overtime finish.
The Trojans’ victory puts them at 8-4-1 on the season, setting them up nicely going into the home stretch of the regular season. With sectionals looming, Parker is looking to push her team to the next level so they can set themselves up for postseason success.
“They know what’s at stake,” Homer’s rookie head coach said. “We’re kind of winding down with these games and heading into sectionals. They’re a young team but they’re all veterans at this point, so they know that we can’t be satisfied yet and we need to start playing our best soccer at this point in the season.”
Homer will return home for a Saturday matchup at 11 a.m. against Carthage. The Purple Tigers, now 3-10, have a quick turnaround to deal with, traveling to Fulton on for a 5 p.m. matchup today.
“It’s an early game (today),” Prosser said. “We’re going to go to Fulton then we have one more week left, so we have to continue with this level of energy to finish out and then see what sectionals are like.”
