Ward Melville girls soccer advances to state Class AAA final behind Adriana Victoriano's three goals

CORTLAND — The Ward Melville girls soccer team hasn’t lost a game over the past three seasons and the Patriots have barely even trailed in a match during that span. But Ward Melville found itself behind in the scoreboard in the state semifinals.

For 33 seconds at least.

Adriana Victoriano scored her first of three goals 33 seconds after Fairport struck first. That 33-second sequence foreshadowed the next two hours as Ward Melville defeated Fairport, 5-4, in a wild girls soccer state Class AAA semifinal at Tompkins Cortland Community College on Saturday afternoon.

Victoriano wasn’t used to the feeling of trailing in a match. She didn’t like it and was quick to change that with the tying goal.

“I think that was huge because usually the first goal determines who wins the game,” Victoriano said. “So getting it back right away really put them down a bit. It’s almost like nothing happened.”

Victoriano’s heroics were just beginning as the senior scored two more go-ahead goals, including the winner with 4:49 left in the second half. Her final goal came 2:08 after Fairport tied the score at 4 following a botched Ward Melville clear attempt that resulted in a Fairport goal.

Victoriano possessed the ball in the middle and took a few touches to the right before stopping and shooting across her body, perfectly placing a ball to the top-left corner from 15 yards out for the winning goal.

“I tried to get as much open space as I could and I saw the goalie off her line, so I took a shot,” Victoriano said. “We all wanted to win the game in regulation. We really didn’t want to go into overtime because we knew from the start we deserved this.”

“How she found that net and placed it in the corner, I just can’t [believe it],” coach John Diehl said. “She’s amazed us all season and it’s just a ‘Wow’ every time she has these performances.”

Ward Melville (19-0-1) seeks its third straight state title when it plays Arlington (18-3-1) at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday at SUNY Cortland in the state Class AAA final. The Patriots improved to 55-0-7 since the start of the 2022 season.

Breena Harrigan scored off an assist from Victoriano with 21:44 left in the first half to give Ward Melville a 2-1 lead. The Patriots and Fairport (12-6) alternated goals as the score was tied 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4 with Ward Melville holding a one-goal lead each time before Victoriano’s winning goal.

“We’re a team that digs deep in these moments,” Harrigan said. “We’ve always been like that. Getting scored on, we don’t let it sit for that long. We put the work back in.”

Victoriano scored her second goal off a corner kick from Carolyn Rowe to take a 3-2 lead with 35:20 left in the second half after Fairport tied the score at 2 with 1:47 left in the first half.

Savanna Biehler, who had three goals for Fairport, scored on a free kick from 25 yards out to tie the score at 3 less than two minutes after Victoriano’s goal. Harrigan gave the Patriots a 4-3 lead on a penalty kick following a handball in the 18-yard box with 13:44 left.

“We kept the composure just long enough to hold it because the end was getting crazy, as we suspected,” Diehl said. “But I’m just shot emotionally. That was a roller coaster.”