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‘Billies take Dunkirk

Fredonia tops Marauders, 5-1, under DHS lights

OBSERVER Photo by Ron Szot Fredonia’s Laural Erick (left) pushes the ball forward in the Dunkirk zone beyond Dunkirk’s Morgan Cotton (right) during Wednesday’s rivalry matchup at Dunkirk High School. Fredonia won the game, 5-1.

It’s almost as if you can smell the intensity in the air when Dunkirk and Fredonia come together to meet for a high school sporting event.

Wednesday was no different, as the Fredonia Hillbillies girl soccer team scored three goals in a span of three minutes to help themselves top Dunkirk in this edition of the cross-town rivalry in Dunkirk, 5-1.

“I think the girls have a little bit more pride in a game like this,” said Dunkirk head coach Leah Ponticello. “There’s more of a sense of personal responsibility on the field.”

“I think the Dunkirk-Fredonia thing for me is special because these kids do life together off the field,” said Fredonia head coach Brett Gould. “For me it’s never been about a rivalry, but rather an opportunity.”

The energy picked up from the opening whistle, as Fredonia made a point to keep a fast moving tempo off the bat. Throw-ins, corner kicks and restarts were all sped up by the pace the Hillbillies were playing at.

“When you’re 1-4, it would be understandable for a young student-athlete to go ‘I don’t know, who are we?'” said Gould. “That’s when they doubled down on the trust and relationships they have with one another.”

The game would stay scoreless through the first 16 minutes until Laural Erick got loose on a breakaway to bury a shot past Dunkirk goalkeeper Kymilondjra Nance to give them a 1-0 lead.

Not even a minute later, Erick found herself streak down the side only to make a perfect cross to freshman Emily Timmerman who buried it for her second goal of the season.

“They’ve leaned in and worked hard, and they were already working hard,” said Gould. “But they weren’t satisfied with that.”

Erick then again found herself in almost the exact same scenario in the next minute and she made another pass back to Timmerman, who scored her second of the game, giving Fredonia three goals in a span of three minutes.

“When you look at the way the goals got scored tonight — the passing, the clinical nature of them — that’s what you like to see as a coaching staff,” said Gould. “That’s something we’ve been working hard on throughout the week.”

After those three minutes, Dunkirk could’ve laid down, but to their credit, they didn’t. Dunkirk started locking things down defensively, stopping shots and frustrating the Fredonia offense.

“A lot of times if we go down by two, that’s the mood,” said Ponticello. “This time that didn’t happen, it wasn’t a domino effect of negativity. The girls put in great effort all night.”

Dunkirk would find themselves on the score sheet in the 32nd minute of the game when they took their first corner kick and got a favorable bounce off of the Fredonia goalkeeper Kelly Gullo and in to the net to cut the lead to 3-1 heading into halftime.

“This is one game that was 5-1 but I still feel proud of them — proud of the effort,” said Ponticello.

Fredonia would enter the second half playing with the same sense of urgency they started the game with, and would wind up with two more goals because of it. Erick made a cross towards Paige Supkoski and the pass went off a Dunkirk defender and into the net for a 4-1 lead. About ten minutes later, Erick would score another goal, on a pass up top from Kazlin Beers making the final score 5-1.

“They were really looking for each other in the passing,” said Gould. “They made that adjustment in one practice in between, and that’s not easy to do.”

Nance wound up making a whopping 21 saves in goal for the Lady Marauders and gave great effort to keep her team in the game.

The fans and the atmosphere of this game will be remembered as a time these communities came together for an opportunity, rather than a rivalry.

“It’s about an opportunity to celebrate the relationship Dunkirk and Fredonia share,” said Gould. “We have a unique little geographical spot in the world, we just share things back and forth. You probably saw girls hugging each other after the game, we’ve coached players on the other team and you saw the crowd. It’s a special moment we shared tonight.”

For Fredonia (4-4), Wednesday marks three straight victories after a 1-4 start. There’s no doubt they’ll be looking to keep it going.

“With the girls we tell them to just keep the plane in the air,” said Gould. “Never underestimate your opponent. We have to come and play everyday because they’re going to do the same.”

Fredonia will face Olean on Friday, while Dunkirk (0-7) will play Allegany-Limestone, looking for their first win of the season.

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