Sherburne-Earlville’s Gavin Zbicki defends and looks to make the next pass for his team while a Tully defender is on his back. The Marauders fell to the Black Knights by a final of 2-1 in the first round of the Section III Class C Boys Soccer tournament. S-E ends their season with a final record of 7-9-1. (Megan Rodriguez Photo)

OV handed first round loss by Cobras

SHERBURNE – In an evenly matched game that saw both the host Sherburne-Earlville Marauders and the visiting Tully Black Knights each create numerous scoring opportunities, it was the Black Knights who broke the 1-1 tie with seven minutes remaining in the game to pull out the Section III Class C win Wednesday afternoon.

Tully had the opportunities early in the match, controlling the possession early while the Marauders tried to shake off the slow start. One shot attempt by a Black Knight looked as if it was going to slide under the crossbar and into the goal but a S-E defender headed the ball out of harm’s way to preserve the nil-nil score.

However, midway through the first half, Tully’s Ian Byrne put his team ahead with an outside-inside move that created space for his shot at the top of the 18. As he ripped off the shot attempt, S-E keeper John Oley made a play on the ball but it took a weird bounce, it went through Oley’s legs and into the goal.

The Marauders woke up and both teams went back-and-forth with chances as the ball stayed around the half field mark for the remainder of the first half. The same continued through most of the second half as Sherburne-Earlville’s chances slowly dwindled away.