Frewsburg's Taytum Jimerson closely defends Byron-Bergen's Mia Gray during the NYSPHSAA Class C Far West Regional at Williamsville East High School on Saturday. OBSERVER photo by Christian Storms

EAST AMHERST — Saturday marked the fifth time the Frewsburg girls soccer team reached the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Far West Regional in Class C and the third time the Bears were matched up against Section V’s Byron-Bergen, but once again they suffered the same fate.

Frewsburg kept Byron-Bergen junior and University of Florida commit Mia Gray fairly quiet in all of regulation and even the first overtime period at Williamsville East High School, but Gray eventually got her chance to end the game in the 101st minute and she took it.

Capitalizing on a turnover, the Bees were quick back in the direction of Frewsburg’s end with Gray dribbling and near the top of the box she made a quick give and go with Grace DiQuattro that allowed her to work in close. Gray dribbled toward the post before slotting the game-winning goal past Elysse Gruber that lifted the Bees 2-1 and into the state semifinals.

“It hurts right now,” Frewsburg head coach Scott Stone stated. “But I can hang my hat on my team fights, as long as the play is still going my team is never going to give up. They fought the entire time, we had chances in the end, we thought we could have beat them, we just came up short.”

In the first overtime at the 86th minute Gray hit a post and before that her best chance was in the early going of the first half. What kept Gray from taking over the game was an elite defensive performance from Taytum Jimerson.

Frewsburg defender Kaylee Cappa clears the ball against Byron-Bergen during the NYSPHSAA Class C Far West Regional on Saturday at Williamsville East High School. OBSERVER photo by Christian Storms

Not only was Jimerson able to limit space for Gray, but she was able to slip away when Frewsburg gained possession and factored in on several chances by the Bears, eventually scoring the game-tying goal in the 62nd minute.

“Taytum is one of the best players in Western New York,” Stone stated. “She’s showed it year in and year out. We know what type of player Mia is, but we didn’t shy away from it. Taytum knew that was her responsibility and we walked in here confident that Taytum could go toe to toe with her and if she did that we thought we’d have a chance to win the game. Audrey too, we’ve got two really good center-mids and they were a handful themselves. We believed that they could play with their center-mids and I think they proved it today.”

With its top player marked, Byron-Bergen was forced to look for offense from its supporting cast and the Bees showed they still had plenty of firepower. Byron-Bergen’s forwards moved the ball well between one another, but could not get a clean chance as the Frewsburg defense did an excellent job of closing the open space. Then when the Bees did manage to get a shot Frewsburg’s freshman keeper Elysse Gruber stood tall to make the save.

“I can’t say enough about our defense,” Stone said about his team. “We got two rookies playing back there that haven’t played before, we threw two center backs that wasn’t really their spot. There was a lot of question marks going into the beginning of the season and all we did was give up seven goals up to this point and two today. They played great today, we got beat by a really good team, but to say I’m impressed by my defense is an understatement.”

Surrendering just seven goals this season prior to the regionals, it was going to take something special to get past the Bears and Gruber who finished with 20 saves on Saturday.

“I believe Elysse is one of the best goalies in Western New York,” Stone said about his keeper. “She’s a young player, last year she won the sectional final shootout for us. She came up with some huge saves today to keep us in the game and I’m just happy she’s on my team. She’s only a freshman, we’ve got three more years of her and I think you’re going to hear her name a lot moving forward.”

After a half with both sides generating great scoring opportunities it was still scoreless after 40 minutes of play, but it didn’t take long in the second half for the first lucky bounce.

In the 46th minute, Byron-Bergen generated its second corner of the young half and it appeared the Bears had another stop. However, the initial corner kick that was denied bounced right to Meghan Muscarella who chipped the ball right back into the fray and Janessa Amesbury nodded the first goal past Gruber for the 1-0 lead.

Right after the first goal it looked like Byron-Bergen might open things up, but the Bears buckled down to keep the deficit the same and began fighting back into the contest.

As the urgency ramped up from both sides with a spot in the state semifinals on the line, the physicality of the contest also kicked up a notch with three yellow cards being issued between the two teams and a pair given to the Bees.

With the physicality increasing the Bees were subjected to the best part of Ava Jimerson’s game and in the 62nd minute she used her strength to fight past defenders for an equalizer. In the same minute of a Byron-Bergen corner, Frewsburg’s defense quickly turned the threat into offense and Ava Jimerson dribbled down the left wing. Just when it looked like her angle was too poor for a shot in the box she cleverly crossed a ball perfectly around the defenders and out of the reach of Byron-Bergen goalkeeper Natalie Prinzi and swooping in perfectly was Taytum Jimerson to smash the tying goal into the net.

“It’s hard to put into words,” Stone said about the Jimerson twin-era at Frewsburg. “I love those kids like they’re my own, I’ve been coaching them since they were eight years old. So to have them be seniors and be done it hurts, I’m just glad I got the opportunity to coach some kids that work as hard as those two do.”

The goal connection from the Jimerson twins breathed life into the Bears and they got right back to pressing for their next goal. However, Byron-Bergen showed that it was strong from front to back and did not allow another goal.

It seemed like neither side would find the back of the net again until in the 101st minute Gray finally found some space for a run into the box and did not miss to send the Bees back to the state semifinals after a year absence, 2-1 in double overtime.

Gray will now look to do what her father accomplished and win a state championship with the Bees. Gray is the daughter of Frewsburg native Chris Gray who was a member of the Bears state champion baseball teams in 1995 and 1996.

Frewsburg finishes its season with just nine goals against, another league title and a sixth-straight sectional championship, but now the work begins to get back to this point with the goal of breaking through.

“Just keep fighting, don’t quit,” Stone told his team after the game. “This is our sixth time winning the section, there’s no quit in them girls over there. They wanted to get over the hump, they wanted it as bad as anybody, they worked their butts off all year. The message was just keep fighting, they’re the Frewsburg Bears, that’s what we do. They continue to fight, it just wasn’t our day.”