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Hillbillies win in Dunkirk

Fredonia comes out on top of rivalry game against Marauders 1-0

OBSERVER Photo by Ron Szot Fredonia’s Dawson Bird (3) and Dunkirk’s Alexander Nytz (19) contest a header during Wednesday’s rivalry game in Dunkirk. The Fredonia Hillbillies came out on top, 1-0.

At halftime the Dunkirk-Fredonia rivalry was deadlocked at 0-0. The first goal was finally scored by Juan Matias in the second half and with that goal Fredonia (1-1-1, 1-3-1) held on defensively to beat the Marauders (0-2, 1-5) on their turf, 1-0, for a Section VI CCAA Division 1 West boys soccer victory.

The match started off with the first early chances going to the hosts. Dunkirk’s early offensive gameplan was lob passes over the Fredonia back line. Fredonia kept the Marauders off the board, but Fredonia quickly realized that Dunkirk meant business.

“Having another year under my belt here as coach, and to be able to get to know these players we really are starting to get to know each other… positioning and really being able to work some of our formations,” stated Dunkirk head coach EJ Hayes. “So I think that they were really able to hold their formations and move the ball well.”

After a couple early flashes of offense by the Marauders, Fredonia settled down the game and started to maintain possession. As momentum swung in favor of Fredonia, so did the chances. Fredonia used their opportunities with free kicks to get the ball into the box, causing a lot of mayhem for the Dunkirk defenders.

“I felt that in the first half we played really well,” stated Fredonia head coach Jim Rush. “I thought we had a number of good opportunities. We changed the system a little from Monday. It allowed us to press a little… and we created opportunity.”

The Dunkirk back line stayed strong in most of the first half, aside from one slip up that allowed Fredonia’s Liam Jones to speed past the defenders. Jones worked his way to the top of the box on his breakaway before hearing the defender’s footsteps and got off a strong shot that went right into the open arms of Dunkirk goalie Ashton Witkowski.

“Ashton Witkowski, he stepped up,” stated Coach Hayes. “We had him at forward, but when we lost Tristan Skelly last year, goalie was a big void for us and Ashton stepped up. He’s been in there and he’s kept us in a lot of games. We put him in a tough spot and he’s showed composure.”

Witkowski stood strong throughout the entirety of the match, turning down just about every opportunity sent his way by the rival Hillbillies.

A newcomer to the Dunkirk-Fredonia rivalry was Fredonia’s Juan Matias and Matias certainly rose to the occasion. In the first half Matias was all over the ball and seemed to be the driving force behind plenty of the opportunity generated by the ‘Billies, however, Witkowski got his first taste as the starting goalkeeper in the heated rivalry and made sure that Matias got nothing easy.

“Juan is a good player,” added Coach Rush. “He creates opportunity, he creates space. He is a very good player, he distributes the ball and it allows him when he gets the ball back to create the space.”

After a hard fought first half, it was still tied with no score as neither side could capitalize on their scoring chances.

Similiar to the first half, the second half saw Dunkirk bring the heat right out of the gate. Dunkirk looked more poised in the second half, controlling the possession and generating most of the offensive opportunities.

As the second half went on, Fredonia slowly started to get a stronger grip on the game, seeing more opportunities bounce their way. Jack Carlson got a strong opportunity to break the tie for Fredonia on a breakaway, but just missed his mark as he fired his shot wide of the net. Carlson continued to play strong for Fredonia in the middle of the field and played as a good target for Matias halfway through the half, as a cross to box was headed just wide too.

“A typical Dunkirk-Fredonia game,” stated Coach Rush. “It was exciting, I thought we played well in pockets. We were generating opportunities, we just had to finish one.”

Dunkirk’s defense continued to play strong, but the long tiring game looked to be getting to some of their players as cramps forced different strategies.

“I think in the second half we were able to come out and move the ball,” Coach Hayes added. “But then with some of the cramping and player shifting… we kind of got people out of some spots that they’re not used to playing in and I think that started to allow Fredonia to push it to us.”

With just under ten minutes left to play, Matias sent a beauty of a strike from outside the right side of the box to the top left corner of the Dunkirk net, making it 1-0 Fredonia with very little to play.

After the go ahead goal inside ten minutes remaining, Dunkirk felt the urgency to score and began pressing. Unfortunately for them, the ‘Billies were able to play stout defensively and even generated opportunity on the counterattack as they held on for a 1-0 victory in hostile territory against their rivals.

Dunkirk is back in action on Friday in Olean. Fredonia hosts Olean on Monday.

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