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Maple Grove’s drought had lasted six years.

Cassadaga Valley had never won a championship.

On Saturday, girls from all three schools came together to accomplish this feat at Hamburg High School.

Kylie Kress scored the winning goal in the 70th minute as Falconer/Cassadaga Valley/Maple Grove won the Section VI Class B title with a 2-1 win over Allegany-Limestone.

OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman Falconer/Cassadaga Valley/Maple Grove celebrates Mary Lundmark’s goal.

“When we found out we were merging, we started to see during the first week of practice what kind of talent we would have and what we were capable of,” Golden Cougars head coach Brett Johnson said: “This thought was always in the back of our minds.”

The teams played a 1-1 first half, but the second-seeded Golden Cougars started to get more offensive touches as the game progressed.

Finally, with just over ten minutes to go, Julianna Roth found some space to work. The sophomore made the most of it, sending a ball into the 18-yard box where Kress took possession. After one touch, the Maple Grove sophomore beat Gators senior goalkeeper Chloe Baker with the shot to make it 2-1.

“They pushed quite quickly, but I knew I had to take advantage of every chance I got. I saw my opportunity and grabbed it’ said Roth, who plays with Kress on the WNY Flash club team in the offseason.

Roth added: “She’s a good player. We have good chemistry. Being on the same team really helped us this season.”

‘I saw a number of defenders coming towards me’ Kress added, “and I just hit it on the bottom right.”

Falconer/Cassadaga Valley/Maple Grove’s back line of Natalie Dossey, Madilyn Seastrum, Giada Schauman and Khloe Livengood made sure the lead held, keeping Allegany-Limestone’s senior leading scorer Cait Kellogg in the crosshairs for the final 10 minutes as time expired.

“They have a lot of speed at the top and are very physical,” said Dossey. “We all made sure we stayed connected to stop them.”

The top-seeded Gators, whose only two losses this season came against the Golden Cougars, struck first on a cool Saturday morning at Howe Field.

Less than five minutes into the game, Kellogg took a long pass from Kennedy Honeck and got free behind the Falconer/Cassadaga Valley/Maple Grove back line before scoring on Golden Cougars keeper Ellyson Baglia for a 1-0 lead.

“We were prepared to keep our heads up no matter what happened.” said Dossey. “We knew they were a strong team and that they would probably score, but we kept our heads up and carried on.”

Less than 10 minutes later, Falconer/Cassadaga Valley/Maple Grove responded when a shot from Kress in the box found the diving foot of Mary Lundmark, who punched the ball into the goal to tie the game.

“Mary has one speed and that is fast”, Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter how the ball goes in, it doesn’t have to be pretty, just put the ball in the net. She is one of the best at that.”

Not long after, Allegany-Limestone won three corners in a row, but failed to get one from Baglia.

“Seeing their record and knowing we had that one loss gave us that confidence,” Johnson said. “We still had to worry that they were an 18-1 team and they were going to play like that.”

Later in the first half, Kress hit the underside of the crossbar and somehow the ball didn’t cross the goal line as the score remained 1-1 after 40 minutes.

Midway through the second half, Kellogg broke free for her second breakaway of the day, but Baglia made a diving attempt to bend the ball wide of the far post.

“Those saves literally make you win and lose the game. Her decision making has been great over the last few weeks,” Johnson said of Baglia. “She just continued to grow as a goalkeeper.”

That save proved to be key late on as Kress buried what turned out to be the winner.

“You give a player like Jules that little space to make a pass, and it was a perfect pass,” Johnson said. “Luckily we had Kylie there to finish it off.”

Next up for the Golden Cougars is a New York State Public High School Athletic Association Far West Regional date with Section V champion Hornell at 7:45 PM Friday at Williamsville North High School. The Red Raiders defeated Bath-Haverling 2-1 in the championship game in the Rochester area on Friday night.

“We will work on some things in practice, watch a video and see if we can adapt to it,” Johnson said.