Fillmore’s standout senior netted another hat trick to lead the Section V champions past North Collins 6-0 in the Class D Far West Regional on Saturday afternoon at Caledonia-Mumford High School’s Hamilton Field.

“We didn’t have too much on them. I knew they had two goal scorers,” North Collins head coach Vince Fininzio said of Hope and her sister, Grace, who have now combined for 94 goals on the season. “Section V soccer is usually really good. We were up against a team that is really good. They played great.”

Next up for the Eagles is a New York State Public High School Athletic Association semifinal match against Section X champion Lisbon at 5 p.m. next Saturday at Homer High School. Lisbon beat Section VII champion Chazy 4-0 in another Saturday semifinal.

“We were a little more free this week mentally,” Fillmore head coach Jon Beardsley. “These seniors in fifth grade said ‘We’re going to go to states.’ Now we’ve done it a couple of times.”

OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman North Collins seniors Jaylee Jimerson and Novalee Schlenker are consoled by teammates after losing to Fillmore on Saturday afternoon.

North Collins’ girls knew they had a tough task at hand against Fillmore, which entered with a perfect 19-0-0 record after its 4-0 Section V championship game win over Northstar Christian.

Fillmore locked up its trip to states early in Saturday’s game.

Senior Amelia Rose sent a corner kick toward the goal in the eighth minute that was shot on net by Russell creating a rebound that was tapped home by sophomore Mattie McCumiskey for her third goal of the season.

“Those are hurtful ones when you make a save and the second-chance opportunity comes in,” Fininzio said. “From our sideline it was hard to see exactly what happened.”

Just over seven minutes later, Hope Russell began to showcase her talents when she took a pass from her twin sister, Grace, dribbled to her left and then took a left-footed shot back across the grain that beat North Collins goalkeeper Meadow Mitchell to the far post for a 2-0 lead.

Less than three minutes later, Hope headed in another Rose corner kick to make it 3-0.

Tenlee Miller then began to put her stamp on the game. In the 29th minute, the eighth-grader blocked a North Collins clearing attempt before dribbling in and scoring from inside 10 yards.

In the 35th minute, Grace Russell took possession off a failed North Collins corner kick, dribbled through the midfield and passed to Miller, who scored her second goal of the game and seventh of the season to make it 5-0.

“We did the things we worked on all week,” Beardsley said. “It’s nice when you practice something, then they go out and do it.”

After halftime, all that was left to see was whether Hope Russell would complete her hat trick. She took care of it early when she took a pass from Rose, took one touch to the middle of the field and scored with her left foot from about 20 yards out for her 69th goal of the year.

“I thought we did a much better job in the second half,” Fininzio said. “The pressure mounts and mounts when you are in these games with a young team. It was a great learning experience for us.”

North Collins, which lost the past two Section VI championship games to Ellicottville, ends its season with an 8-8-3 record. The Eagles will lose just Jaylee Jimerson and Novalee Schlenker to graduation.

“We return 21 players to next year’s team. We just have to work hard and continue to grow as a team,” Fininzio said. “These (seniors) went through COVID and didn’t have a playoff, then were knocked out two years in a row against Ellicottville. To be at the point where we reached the mountaintop again was very satisfying for those kids.”

Fillmore, which advanced to the state tournament in 1984 and 2021, will look for its first state title next weekend.

“Winning Section V is not easy,” Beardsley said. “In some ways, everything we do after sectionals is almost a relief with more joy to it. Prior to that, it’s more work and what we have to do.”