For the Allegany-Limestone girls, it was the difference in leaving Charles A. Lawson Field at the Fran Sirianni Athletic Complex with a league victory Monday night.

With the possession dominated by Southwestern, the Gators showed how quickly a game could turn as Kai Wojewoda-Ko netted a hat trick between the 28th and 32nd minutes, which gave Allegany-Limestone the cushion it needed for a 3-1 Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 victory.

“Things change quickly,” Southwestern head coach Derek Houser said. “They did a really nice job of when they got opportunities they put them in. They got a lot of momentum and things just kind of went badly quickly for a short period and that was enough to get them to the finish line.”

The Trojans had several chances just prior to the Gators taking the lead. A minute prior to Wojewoda-Ko’s first goal, Marlana Cresanti struck a free kick from 35 yards that rung off the crossbar. Then, on the counterattack, a Southwestern defender slipped, which allowed for a clear breakaway at Braya Beaver in net.

Southwestern’s Makenna Johnson attempts to get a shot off in front of Allegany-Limestone’s Faith Zwalsky during Monday’s CCAA Division 1 girls soccer game at the Fran Sirianni Athletic Complex in West Ellicott. P-J photo by Tim Frank

Then a minute after taking the lead, Wojewoda-Ko was off to the races again down the left side and this time she beat her defender clean before ripping a perfect low shot into the back right of the net.

That didn’t deter the Southwestern game plan, instead the Trojans struck right back in the 30th minute when Cresanti connected with Makenna Johnson who delivered a nice shot of her own to make it 2-1.

“There’s a process to winning games,” Houser stated. “If you stick to that you’re going to win a lot more than you lose. Today was one of the ones that we didn’t find a way, but I can’t really argue with a lot of the things we did.”

“I thought we played extremely hard, I thought we were focused, I thought we moved the ball we wanted to,” Houser added. “They were better at putting the ball in the net today and that’s all that matters when you’re talking about wins and losses.”

However, it was just Wojewoda-Ko’s night as she once again blazed down the left wing and hammered home her hat trick goal in the 32nd minute.

It looked as if the game would go back and forth until the buzzer, but behind a sometimes scrambling Allegany-Limestone defense stood goalkeeper Kenna MacArthur who was called upon numerous times.

In the final 10 seconds of the first half, Southwestern managed one last rush toward goal and perfect passing between Lucy Brown and Avery Johnson set up Johnson with a perfect opportunity in the box at the last second. She ripped a strike hard toward goal, but MacArthur was somehow able to redirect the ball to the crossbar and kept the game 3-1.

“That’s a bad combination of us not hitting our spots perfectly and she made you hit the spots,” Houser said about MacArthur’s performance. “There were a couple that on any given day might have been goals. She made three that I can think of off the top of my head. That’s a big part when the keeper keeps you in and they fed off of that.”

The countdown was on for Southwestern to score a pair of goals in 40 minutes, but within the first couple Wojewoda-Ko nearly scored a fourth blazing down the left wing.

The Trojans were in need of playing aggressive, but not too risky to give up another goal on the counterattack.

The best chances continued to be generated by Cresanti, but it was a night you needed to be perfect to get past MacArthur.

In the 59th minute, Cresanti ripped a shot from distance on the left wing that was labeled for the bottom of the crossbar, but instead collided with MacArthur’s punch.

Then just a few minutes later, working from left to right at the top of the box, Cresanti sent a ball back the other way that hit square on with the left post.

“I’m proud of the way that they fought,” Houser said about his team. “It’s not the type of game you want to hang your head on. Sometimes you see 3-1 and you think what happened, but it wasn’t that type of game. I was impressed with how they fought and unfortunately that was a little too big of a hole to dig yourself out of.”

Not only was Allegany-Limestone (4-6-2, 4-2-2) able to stave off a Southwestern (7-4-0, 6-2-0) comeback, but the Gators shut the Trojans out in the second half as they continue to climb back into contention for the competitive league title at Division 1.

“Any night anyone can beat anyone,” Houser said about Division 1. “It’s a grind and you’ve got to be ready and you’ve got to play 80 minutes of soccer. Looking at the scores, there are games we’ve played in and man if this game was 76 minutes then this team would have won or this game this team would have won, but it’s not, it’s 80. If you don’t come ready to play for 80 then any team can take it from you.”