Lancaster Boys Soccer Remains On A Roll With Quarterfinal Win Over Frontier

The Lancaster High School boys soccer team has experienced heartbreak in the Class AA Section VI championship game in each of the last two seasons. The Legends would love another chance on the big stage but there’s some business to tend to first.

Round 1 came on Wednesday and No. 2-seed Lancaster showed it’s ready to go, controlling the tempo and posting a 3-1 win over seventh-seeded Frontier in a sectional quarterfinal at Lancaster High School. Now comes crunch time for the Legends, who have won six straight and eight of nine, with a semifinal against Williamsville North.

“I think we’re coming off a nice win and a strong finish to the season,” senior forward Jason Martin said. “Our confidence is high right now so I think we’ll be able to keep performing at a high level.”

Owen Adamec scored in the seventh minute, Brandon Driscoll scored in the 24th minute and Martin scored in the 67th minute for the Legends. Jonah Kozak scored in the 70th minute for Frontier, the first time Lancaster was scored on in six games.

“The weakest part of our schedule was at the end,” Lancaster coach Chris Palmer said. “We hadn’t really had any big games in a while so we’ve kind of more difficult training sessions to make sure we’re prepared. We came out alright, a little flat in the second half, but overall a good effort.”

The Legends will play rival Williamsville North at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Sweet Home High School. The Spartans beat Lockport 4-1 on Tuesday in their quarterfinal. Clarence will play Orchard Park in the second game of the doubleheader. Top-seeded Clarence rolled to a 10-0 win over Niagara Falls in Wednesday’s quarterfinal, while No. 5 seed OP picked up a nice 2-0 win at Niagara-Wheatfield.

“Every year, any given day anything can happen,” Lancaster coach Chris Palmer said. “Frontier came out and played a heck of a game today; if we didn’t show up they easily could have taken this one from us. It’s going to be the same things going forward. It’s going to come down to who shows up.”

Lancaster lost a home game against Williamsville North, 2-0, on Aug. 29. The Legends returned the favor on Sept. 23, posting a 2-1 win in Williamsville.

“I’m expecting Will North to be a battle; it always is,” said Driscoll, a senior midfielder. “We’re doing to have to come out and give it our all; it’s not going to be easy but we can come out with a win.”

The win was the sixth in a row for the Legends and Lancaster’s record to 13-2-2. In the Legends’ last 14 games, they have 12 wins and a tie and loss to top-ranked Clarence.

Adamec and Martin are tied for the team lead in goals. Driscoll, who Palmer called “the guy we live and die by” leads the team in assists with 10 and has five goals. Martin and Driscoll also praised the play of senior Zach Foley on defense.

“I think our strength is work in the middle,” Martin said. “Keeping possession and using our good strikers. Our defense has been real strong too.”