SCHUYLERVILLE — Beekmantown thought it dodged a bullet in the middle of Saturday's second half when a Broadalbin-Perth goal was waved off.

But Ethan Church came right back down and put the ball in the net again. And this time, it counted.

That gave the Patriots a two-goal lead and propelled them to a 5-1 win in the NYSPHSAA Class B boys' soccer regional finals. Broadalbin-Perth (17-0-3), from Section II, earned a spot in the final four next weekend at Middletown High School.

"It got us pretty upset, so we set out to get another one," Church said of the goal that wasn't. "It's always bad when a goal gets called back. It's always hard to recover from that. But we kept scoring, and it felt good."

Before that goal, Beekmantown (13-6) had built some momentum. Trailing 2-0, the Eagles came out of halftime with energy, and Austin Burl got them back in the game at 5:47. Broadalbin-Perth goalkeeper Madison Wilcox came out to challenge Burl on the left side, and Burl sent the ball past him. Brenden Carnright assisted.

Beekmantown, ranked 10th in the state, had another good chance after a corner kick about 10 minutes later, but the shot was drilled just wide.

"We definitely started to play a little bit more aggressive (to start the second half), and that's kind of what got us here in the first place," Beekmantown coach Ryan Loucy said.

"You hate to say it, but you'd have to say we just, we couldn't maintain that for the whole half. I think you could see that by the time 20 minutes rolled around, we sort of lost some of our steam."

Shortly before the midway point, Church fired a shot into an open net with keeper Derek Olsen on the turf. The goal went up on the scoreboard but was eventually negated because the previous play was offsides.

But Church quickly banged one in from out front. Loucy said he made some adjustments to try push for another goal, leaving some holes in the back.

The fourth-ranked Patriots took advantage. Mark Sylvia found the net with a little over 11 minutes to go, and Ben Bellandi tapped in his second of the game with 3:28 on the clock. Leading scorer Dominic Kwiatkowski finished with a goal and three assists, and Church picked up one assist.

Beekmantown had few chances before halftime, and Broadalbin-Perth took complete control of the play a little less than halfway through. Bellandi scored on a rebound in the 16th minute, and Kwiatkowski tallied from a sharp angle in the 20th minute.

"That was an exceptional team. They really took advantage of our misplays in the first half," Loucy said. "We didn't touch the ball as well as we normally do. We kinda went back on our heels, and they didn't hesitate."

Olsen totaled 12 saves.

For the Eagles, the loss ended an exciting playoff run that included back-to-back upsets in the Section VII playoffs.

"There's a lot of good things we did this year," Loucy said. "And for some of them, having lost to Northeastern the last two or three years, having struggled to beat Plattsburgh when it counted, to come through in those moments in the sectional rounds are the things they'll remember. Those are the things they're most proud of."

—

Broadalbin-Perth 5,

Beekmantown 1

Beekmantown      0 1 — 1

Broadalbin-Perth      2 3 — 5

First half- 1, BP, Bellandi (Kwiatkowski), 16:21. 2, Kwiatkowski (Ackley), 20:17.

Second half- 3, Beek, Burl (Carnright), 5:37. 4, BP, Church (Bellandi, Kwiatkowski), 19:18. 5, BP, Sylvia (Church), 28:35. 6, BP, Bellandi (Kwiatkowski), 36:32.

Shots: Beekmantown 6, Broadalbin-Perth 17.

Saves: Olsen, Beek, 12. M. Wilcox, BP, 5.

Email Courtney Lewis at: clewis@pressrepublican.com