Columbia, Bethlehem boys soccer post dominant semifinal showings to land in Class AA final

GUILDERLAND CENTER, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- The Columbia and Bethlehem boys soccer teams left little doubt Wednesday night that they are, in fact, the top two squads in Class AA.

The top-seeded Blue Devils and second-seeded Eagles proved worthy of their placement in the Class AA sectional tournament. Both squads posted convincing, shutout victories in their semifinal matches out at Guilderland High School to land in Saturday's championship game.

Bethlehem started the evening with a 6-0 trouncing of Mohonasen, the three-seed and fifth-ranked team in the state for Class AA.

"We knew Mohon was talented; we knew their record; we knew everything that everybody was saying about them," said Bethlehem head coach Brian Spina. "But we've been focusing this past week on us. We play our game, and that was what I was most proud of."

Mohon was the unbeaten Colonial Council champion, and the Eagles flew right past them, racking up five goals before the match had even reached halftime.

"Straight from the beginning, we had our mind set," said sophomore forward Ayaz Sajid, who accounted for two of Bethlehem's goals. "We knew what we wanted, and we just put it away."

Bethlehem narrowly missed on a number of scoring opportunities within the first 10 minutes of action, but finally broke through in the 13th minute when Ollie Reichman slipped a shot past Mohon keeper Hudson Frulla off an assist from Muamer Kanic.

The Eagles would then rattle off four goals in the final 20 minutes of the first half. In the 21st minute, Sajid took a pass from Kanic up the left side of the field, crossover-dribbled past his defender and then delivered a left-footed strike into the back of the net. Nine minutes later, he drilled a shot from 15 yards to extended Bethlehem's lead to three.

With just over three minutes remaining before halftime, Conor Garcia dribbled into the left side of box, and chipped a shot around Frulla for the Eagles' fourth goal of the half. But they'd add one more with no time on the clock when Sajid sent a pass into the box that was put away by Kanic.

Reichman tacked on Bethlehem's sixth, and final goal of the contest in the second half.

"Even after each goal, you could see [our guys] saying, "Hey, let's go. Let's get another,"" said Spina. "They weren't satisfied."

Bethlehem is on a bit of a revenge tour after being upset in the semifinals last year as the top seed in the tournament.

"We knew what we were coming into [tonight]," said Sajid. "We knew what happened last year, and we had something on our backs. We knew we had to get the job done."

The Eagles had to replace eight starters from that 2023 team, and have still managed to land in the sectional championship game; one win away from achieving their ultimate goal.

"Our goal as a team is always to bring a sectional title home," said Spina. "We're one step closer to that, and I think the attitude is right there for us."

The buzz saw that is No. 1-seeded Columbia, ranked third in the state in Class AA, squared off with fourth-seeded Niskayuna in the nightcap.

The Blue Devils ripped right past Nisky, winning 4-0, and recording their 15th shutout victory in 18 games this season.

Nisky put up a fight in the first half, holding Columbia scoreless for the first 37 minutes. But with 3:02 remaining before intermission, Aidan Gatchell headed in a corner kick from Liam Schneider to put the Blue Devils in the driver's seat.

They'd quickly tack on two more goals out of the break. Just five minutes in, a booming kick into the box from Ronan Kreshik was headed by Gatchell. Nisky goalkeeper Eric Thurn made a brilliant, initial diving save, but was unable to hang onto the ball, which leaked over to a wide-open Aiden Graber, and he put it away to extend Columbia's margin to two.

A wild sequence ensued on another Schneider corner kick in the 49th minute. The ball was chipped from the left side of the box by Columbia's Caden Shultz to the right side, chipped back across by Cody Hamilton and finished off by Schultz.

Columbia added one more goal later in the half to put the finishing touches on a dominant 40 minutes of soccer.

Columbia (18-0, 13-0) and Bethlehem (14-4, 10-3) will meet in the final Saturday morning at Queensbury. Columbia won the regular-season meeting, 2-1, on Oct. 15 in Delmar. Kickoff is set for 11:00 a.m.

Niskayuna concludes its season with an overall record of 10-6-2; Mohonasen at 17-1.