Williamsville East Girls Soccer Advances With Impressive Win Over Rival South

It’s been somewhat of a roller coaster season for the young Williamsville East High School girls soccer team but the Flames picked a fine time to be at the top of their game.

Led by the four-goal performance of freshman Emma Scalione, fifth-seeded Williamsville East rolled to a surprisingly lopsided 6-3 win over No. 4 seed Williamsville South on Thursday afternoon in a Section VI Class A1 quarterfinal.

That’s the best we’ve played all year,” East coach Chris Durr said, “and to play that way in a rivalry game in the first round of the playoffs, that’s great. We’ve had an up-and-down season but, outside of a couple of plays here and there, this was the best we’ve played all year and this is the time for it.”

Scalione, one of five freshmen on the roster, was the star of the show. She scored the Flames’ first four goals of the game and then assisted on the fifth.

“I haven’t seen a performance like that in a playoff game since Marissa scored four against Grand Island in the sectional finals,” Durr said, referring to current Ohio State player Marissa Birzon’s performance for the Flames in 2015.

With the performance, Scalione took the team lead in goals (15) and points (37). And there was no wiping the smile off her face after the game.

“Oh my gosh, that game was so much fun to play,” she said. “This was the best game I’ve ever played. It was so fun.”

Nine days earlier, things were a whole lot different. The Billies came to Williamsville East and left with a 3-2 win.

“They beat us last week and that really fired us up,” said Durr, whose club also won 2-0 at East in September. “This is the game we wanted.”

The Flames will play top-seed Grand Island at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Williamsville East in the sectional semifinals. The Vikings – who advanced with a 5-0 win over West Seneca West in their quarter on Thursday – beat the Flames in each of the last two sectional championship games.

East – with just five seniors on the roster – will be the underdogs next week but that doesn’t mean the Flames are worried about next year just yet.

“I truly believe if we can play the way we can play, we can compete with anybody,” Durr said. “This is a group that, we’re looking to be special the next couple years, but we’re not looking to be done yet.”

Tatyjana Scalisi scored twice and Kaitlin Gruber also scored for the Billies. Williamsville South’s season ended at 8-7.

“I really think that’s a game you can’t explain,” South coach Kevin McNamara said. “We played them two other times this season and we played really well in both of those games. Personally, personally I didn’t see this happening. Whether they ended up winning or we ended up winning … I didn’t see a game that would be separated by three goals.”