CRARYVILLE — The Cairo-Durham Mustangs defeated Patroon Conference girls soccer rival Taconic Hills Titans in a 1-0 thriller on Wednesday.

Mackenzie Sherburne scored the Mustangs’ lone goal with under 13:00 on the clock and led Cairo-Durham to a road victory after a tough battle in the early part of the season.

Both teams got out to somewhat of a slow start in the first half and were conservative with their passing before they could open up the field. Gianna Helmedach had the first open chance for the Mustangs right in front of the Titans’ goal but her shot sailed high over the crossbar.

Cairo-Durham was close again after being awarded a penalty kick, but Taconic Hills keeper Mikayla Silvernail made a great save on the shot that was taken by Hannah Esslie.

As the game progressed, each side got more comfortable on defense to pressure more aggressively and interrupt passing lanes to afford themselves more possession time.

Taconic Hills had more than one breakaway chance where they were called offsides and brought back. The Titans’ defense would respond however and hustled downfield to disrupt subsequent chances for the Mustangs.

Cairo-Durham broke away downfield and had space but Lauren Zecca’s pass to Helmedach was too wide and it rolled out of bounds. Near the end of the half both sides traded possessions back and forth in the final minutes and no shots were taken to bring the scoreless tie to halftime.

The Mustangs got out to a hot start in the second half, crossing a pass on an attacking play but there was no one there to receive it and it went untouched. They then had two consecutive corner kicks that were unsuccessful, with Sherburne heading the ball directly into the hands of SIlvernail on the second attempt.

Taconic Hills played with greater urgency the first 15:00 of the half than their opponent but they still could not create enough space to put a volume of shots on goal.

Minutes later a handball was called on the Titans’ Mahalia Ingram inside the box to give the Mustangs another penalty kick. The shot was taken by McKayla Mudge who went to the left post and pushed it wide and the score remained 0-0 with under 25:00 to go in regulation.

Each team was unsuccessful on back-to-back offensive pushes and the defenses caught up just in time. Shortly thereafter the Titans got into a mad scramble for the ball inside the box on offense and the deflections sent the Mustangs’ keeper Noelle Amoroso diving one way and took her out of play on the other side.

Luckily for the Mustangs, a defender got there immediately as the ball quickly found the other side of the goalie box and she cleared the ball out before the Titans could compose themselves and find the net.

At the other end on a less chaotic play, the Mustangs stole the ball away right in front of the Titans’ goal and Sherburne was right there to bury the ball in the back of the net to put Cairo-Durham ahead 1-0 with a little over 12:00 on the clock.

The Mustangs kept the pressure on the Titans over the next several minutes as they played keep-away on offense and threatened to score again as they attempted a few more shots.

This was enough to run down the clock for Cairo-Durham and after one final attack for the Taconic Hills offense, the Mustangs were able to get the ball back and wind the clock down to zero, escaping with the 1-0 win over the Titans on the road.

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