Vikings Pass the Test

Halloween may have been Monday, but the top seeded A1 Champion and #1 state ranked Grand Island Vikings had a scare for the first time this season as they took on the A2 Champion Iroquois Chiefs for the Section VI Boys Soccer Class A Overall Championship on Tuesday night. Although, they gave up the first goal of the game and were tied at the half, Grand Island still came out on top by a score of 5-2.

“I don’t think we were really ready for a team that was willing to work as hard as Iroquois did for 80 minutes” said Grand Island Head Coach Frank Butcher. “We haven’t really been tested like that, we’ve always been able to weather a storm for a little bit of time then take over, luckily we were able to keep going and push through.”

The Chiefs came out with a quick score as Dan Madigan found the back of net, just minutes into the game.

At the 12 minute mark, Justin Kozlowski made a great play blocking the Iroquois clear out, Lou Fabiano took advantage of it to tie the game at the half for Grand Island.

“We were getting nervous at halftime,” admits junior John Griffin.

Griffin had two goals and one assist in the win.

The Vikings then took that nervous energy and quickly turned it into offense. Griffin found senior and leading goal scorer for Grand Island, Garrett Robinson for a goal, 26 seconds into the second half.

The Chiefs followed up with some great scoring chances but didn’t convert until Ryan Nehls knocked one in from the left side to tie the game back up with 21 minutes left. Griffin gave the Vikings back the lead thanks to a great assist from Fabiano with 13 minutes left in the game.

The Vikings finally put the game away with only six minutes to go as Nemanja Simic scored. Griffin scored his second goal of the night with a minute left.

“It was great, it was an awesome game until the last 15 minutes. They got a break, we didn’t get a break,” said Iroquois Head Coach George Glinsboeckel. “We prepared well, we gave them a tussle.”

With the win, Grand Island earns its second straight sectional championship. Last year, the Vikings reached the State semi-finals.

On Friday, the Vikings will come back to Sweet Home for the NYSPHSAA Far West Regional Championship against Section V’s Greece Athena at 7:30pm.