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Tonelli too much

Fredonia star nets hat trick in 4-0 victory

By Matt Spielman 5 min read

The Jamestown girls soccer team seemed to pay pretty close attention to Cece Tonelli on Tuesday evening.

But after 80 minutes ran off the clock, the Fredonia junior had netted a hat trick in the Hillbillies' 4-0 shutout of the Red & Green in Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 action at Strider Field.

"They capitalized on what felt like every opportunity they had," Jamestown head coach Jason Kathman said. "I thought we were organized in the back, just a couple of slip-ups, and they capitalized each time."

Tonelli's three goals pushed her to 11 in four games this season, four behind Silver Creek/Forestville junior Abby Cook for the Section VI lead.

"She's lightning quick, she gets into good spots," Kathman said of Tonelli, "and when she has an opportunity, she does a great job."

Jamestown (1-4-0, 0-3-0) seemed to have the plan and personnel in place to limit the Tonelli-led Fredonia attack as the Hillbillies (4-1-0, 2-1-0) had just seven shots on goal, but they made them count.

Fredonia's first opportunity of the game came in the sixth minute when senior Callie Draggett's corner kick was headed over the Red & Green goal by senior Mady Polhamus.

Tied 0-0 nearing the midpoint of the first half, Fredonia sent a long ball into the corner of the Jamestown end of the field. A Red & Green defender waited on the ball, hoping it would run out of bounds, but Draggett ran after it, kept it inbounds and then found an open Tonelli, who struck the ball with the outside of her right foot into the goal for a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute.

The score remained 1-0 until the 28th minute when junior Aria Russo touched a ball to Tonelli, who easily tucked home her second goal of the game and 10th of the season.

"The first two goals they had were just little breakdowns on our part," Kathman said. "Because (Tonelli) is the player that she is, one small breakdown turns into a goal for her. She's just great at finishing around the net."

Tonelli made it 3-0 in the eighth minute of the second half after taking a pass from sophomore Nora Polhamus in a tight window inside the Jamestown defense.

"She definitely is good at being in the right spot and finishing, however we have certainly worked on building as a team versus just looking to play the ball through to her," Fredonia head coach Kyle Marvin said of Tonelli. "Everyone knows her ability and they know who she is so we just can't count on a through ball to her."

The Red & Green's best opportunity to score came in the 24th minute of the second half after junior Amy Noll's corner kick came free to sophomore Kinsley Berg at the top of the 18-yard box, but Berg's shot glanced off the crossbar and out of bounds.

"We changed some things for the second half, we pulled a kid out of the back and put an extra attacking midfielder in there. I thought we possessed the ball well, we had a couple of opportunities and we played off of our striker really well ... it just wasn't our day," Kathman said. "It just didn't happen for us to get it in the back of the net."

The Hillbillies capped the scoring in the final minute. Draggett sent another corner kick into the 6-yard box and after a pair of shot attempts were blocked, Nora Polhamus put home her fifth goal of the season with just 15 seconds remaining.

"So far this season, we haven't been as successful at attacking off of corners. We haven't been first to the ball," Marvin said. "So to get one off of a corner definitely is something to build on. We need to do a lot more of it if we want to be successful."

Naomi Muck was credited with 10 saves en route to her third clean sheet of the season for Fredonia.

"We got a shutout, which was a goal for us, however we gave up far too many opportunities where Naomi had to make some saves," Marvin said. " ... We were just a step off, a step late and they were able to get in and get some decent chances on us. Luckily, Naomi bailed us out and kept the shutout for us."

The Hillbillies return to action at 11 a.m. Saturday against Allegany-Limestone/Hinsdale at Fredonia State University while Jamestown will host Olean at 6 p.m. Thursday.

"We got the result that we wanted, but not necessarily the play throughout the game that we wanted. We got our goals, we got ahead and we got our lead, but Jamestown showed up to play, they possessed the ball, they did a lot of really good things to make us work," Marvin said. "We have to be able to make adjustments on the fly if we want to be able to have better possession and better opportunities as we get further into the season and postseason."

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