Bourdeau comes up BIG in Maple Hill Boys Soccer draw with Greenville

Greenville, NY — Eighty minutes of regulation play and a pair of sudden death overtime periods weren’t enough to tip the balance either way Thursday afternoon, as the Wildcats of Maple Hill and the Spartans of Greenville walked off the field in a 0-0 draw.

Throughout regulation play both teams had ample opportunities to score, but to no avail.

Maple Hill got perhaps their best chance all day to make something happen late in the second overtime session, but the Wildcats simply could not find a way to put one in the net.

Contrary to the first session of OT, it was Greenville who saw some of their best opportunities to take this one. But just as he had done all game, Maple Hill goalkeeper Lucas Bourdeau stopped the Greenville assault one save at a time.

Bourdeau, a hockey player, showed off his on-ice moves more than once — putting his body on the line to preserve any chance of a Maple Hill victory. The Maple Hill junior humbly downplayed his performance after the game, “My saves, well they were mediocre, but came up in clutch moments. It wasn’t all me, our defense came through too.” Bourdeau finished the game with 12 saves, all of which prevented the Wildcats from being dealt their only loss of the regular season.

With Sectionals right around the corner, Maple Hill head coach Dan Gillespie did not hide his displeasure with the way his squad played, “ it’s the worst thing (entering Sectionals). When you have momentum in sports you try to keep it and when you become unfocused, you lose it.”

Although the Wildcats didn’t fully complete the perfect regular season, they did go 16-0-1 and more importantly, added to the legacy of Maple Hill Soccer with another Patroon Conference title.  “It means everything to these kids playing, if you win your league you’re doing something right,” said Gillespie.

For Greenville,  the draw somewhat avenges the four-nil beating they took earlier in the season at Maple Hill. “It gets us motivated and gives us the confidence to know that we can hang with top teams like Maple Hill,” said Greenville head coach Victor Zeh.

Both of these teams will now have to wait patiently for the big news to drop Tuesday, when they find out who they’ll face first in Sectionals. The two are no strangers to competing against each other in Section II’s annual post-season tournament. For the past 2 years, it’s been Greenville that’s ended Maple Hill’s season.

Be sure to stay up to date by following @ByDylanRossiter on Twitter throughout Tuesday. I will be tweeting out the seedings for both boys and girls soccer as they are released to the media. If all goes as planned, we expect to know the complete playoff picture by 12:30 p.m.

 

-Dylan Rossiter(@ByDylanRossiter)