Brandon Canevari

Staff writer

ARLINGTON - In a solid team effort that saw three different scoring members, Arlington Memorial High School defeated Black River High School 3-1 on Monday.

"We certainly had the better of the play and a lot more opportunities," said Arlington Head Coach Dan Wood. "I mean I don't think they had any opportunities, or hardly [any.]"

Arlington's Becca Bushee got the scoring started just over 10 minutes into the game off an assist from senior captain Rayleen Sherman, burying the ball in the upper right corner of the goal.

Arlington (9-3-1) nearly struck again 12 minutes later when a shot from Molly Elwell sailed just over the crossbar.

Then, with time winding down in the first half, Elwell took the ball down the right side and fired a shot on goal that rolled into the lower left corner with 6.2 seconds remaining to give Arlington the 2-0 advantage going into halftime.

Black River (9-5-0) came out aggressive at the beginning of the second half and with about 11 minutes gone off the clock sophomore forward Abigail Schmidt who beat a couple defenders and then lofted a long shot on goal, bending it into the upper left corner of the to bring Black River within a goal. With one goal under their belt, Black River Head Coach Patrick Pullinen said he made a minor adjustment.

"At 2-1 the only thing we did was encourage our forwards to take on their defenders on a wet, slippery day," he said. "In the first half, and even in the

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second half, there were some of us I think that were giving the ball away too early and I think our goal came off a really nice effort by Abigail Schmidt after beating two or three defenders."

Unlike Pullinen, Wood said his game plan remained the same after the goal - get the ball to Sherman and Elwell up top.

"That's going to work nine times out of 10," Wood said. "Nobody else has two players like that on their team. They play well and they missed a lot of opportunities today even, but if they make them they're going to win a lot of games and go a long way."

In fact, it was that combination that provided some breathing room for the Eagles, with about 19 minutes left in the game when Sherman put a shot in the back of the net off a beautiful cross from Elwell to give Arlington the 3-1 advantage.

In a post game interview, Sherman said she felt the goal revitalized the team.

"I felt that it boosted us up; that we had this game and we needed to keep playing hard to keep a lead," said Sherman. "We had to keep going; no [letting] up."

Arlington's Hannah Andrew tallied eight saves on the day.

Arlington's next game will be at home against proctor on Thursday at 4 p.m.