It’s hard to not believe Fredonia girls soccer coach Dan Tomaszewski when he says it.

Junior Ava Rukavina scored in the first half and the Hillbillies’ defense kept Allegany-Limestone away from any dangerous chances for the entire night as Fredonia beat the Gators 1-0 on Thursday night at SUNY Fredonia.

After the game, when Tomaszewski told his girls that the win clinched them a share of the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 West title, it was news to every single one of them.

“It really wasn’t about anything else. We didn’t talk about a league title. I purposely didn’t bring it up because we don’t need the added pressure,” Tomaszewski said. “Night to night, every game is pressure-packed. We just wanted to focus on beating Allegany-Limestone and playing the best we could play. That’s what we did.”

OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman The Hillbillies’ Rylee Beers secures possession near the middle of the pitch.

Another beneficiary of the Hillbillies’ victory was Jamestown, which finished with an identical 8-4 league record as Fredonia and split the championship in Red Raiders head coach Kelsey Lizzuo’s sixth year at the helm.

“I’m proud of my team and how far we’ve come,” Liuzzo said late Thursday. “They’ve fought a hard fight and definitely worked for this title this year. I couldn’t be more proud and I’m excited to see what playoffs bring for us.”

Allegany-Limestone needed at least a tie to win the league title outright, but instead finished with a 7-4-1 league mark.

The Hillbillies carried play for much of the first half, registering their first real threat in the ninth minute when senior Claire Marshall just missed over the crossbar on a long shot.

In the 18th minute, Rukavina sent a ball into the 18-yard box onto the foot of junior Sophia Gullo, whose hard shot was stopped by Gators sophomore keeper Chloe Baker. Rukavina gathered the rebound and was fouled, giving Fredonia a penalty kick.

It was the ideal scenario for the Hillbillies, who were able to send Annie Gondek to the PK dot. Their senior leading scorer has 12 goals on the season, but her low drive was stopped by a diving Baker and cleared to safety.

“You have to have a short-term memory in sports. You have an 80-minute game. The hope is you play a perfect game, but the odds of that actually happening are kind of low,” Tomaszewski said. “You forget about your mistake, you go out and reset your mind. … Instead of making another mistake you make a quality play that’s going to help the team.”

Gondek didn’t dwell on her missed opportunity, instead a minute later, she sent a ball into the box that pinballed around to Gullo, whose shot was stopped again. This time, Rukavina secured the rebound at the far post and sent her third goal of the season into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.

“It just ping-ponged around a little bit,” Tomaszewski said, “and it went our way.”

With over 60 minutes remaining in the game, it seemed unlikely that goal would hold up, but on the other hand, Fredonia had already played in four 1-0 games this season, three of them losses.

“It’s agonizing. You know they are going to come at us. You know they are well coached and they are a quality team. You hope to catch a break that puts another one in the net and gives you a little bit of breathing room. If not, you have to buckle it up and keep everything in front,” Tomaszewski said. “We did a great job. Our girls did a tremendous job. It was a gritty game. They got the lead and once they got it, they fought to keep it.”

Allegany-Limestone began to showcase its speed after halftime, but each time the Hillbillies’ defense, including seniors Gigi Ferro, Josephine Tomaszewski and Arianna Huber, in addition to junior Emma Patterson, had an answer.

“We communicated better. We moved better,” Tomaszewski said. “We closed down space when we needed to and gave up the space when we needed to. I’m really proud of our girls all the way around.”

Senior goalkeeper Sarah Davis was called upon to make six saves, sending Fredonia into next week’s Section VI postseason with a victory and a league championship.

“On any given night, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Everybody has quality players. Everybody is playing sound defense. It’s actually good to see that we have that much parity and you have go and earn it every single night,” Tomaszewski said. “We’re going to try and get hot at the right time. … Hopefully this is the start of that and it carries through to sectionals.”