Playing their fourth game in six days, the Cooperstown girls soccer team lost a pivotal Center State match to Mt. Markham Monday, 2-1. In order to win the league title, the Redskins now need to win their regular season finale at Westmoreland Thursday, and hope Hamilton loses their finale at Mt. Markham Saturday.

The loss to Mt. Markham Monday took a little of the shine off of last Wednesday's 2-1 victory at Hamilton, putting Cooperstown in a first place tie.

"Monday's game was a little disappointing, but we're really playing well right now," Cooperstown girls soccer coach Lisa Cherubin said. "We were a little tired against Mt. Markham, but we're 9-2-2 in the league, and 12-2-3 overall so I can't complain."

Cooperstown defeated Morrisville on Friday and battled to a scoreless tie with Milford, 0-0, on Saturday at the National Soccer Hall of Fame fields.

No matter what happens in the league, Cooperstown will begin defense of its Section Three Class C title next week. The sectional seeding meetings are Monday, and Cherubin said her team will face a tough road on the way to another title.

"There are a number of teams out there with one loss or two losses, and we could end up with anywhere from a fifth to seventh seed," Cherubin said. "I'm hoping we get a home game, but it may depend on how we do Thursday."

If Cooperstown is to make another sectional run, they will probably have to take better advantage of their scoring opportunities. While Stephanie Smith had a big week, scoring both goals in the win over Hamilton, another one against Morrisville and a fourth against Mt. Markham to tie Suzanne Clarvoe for the team lead in goals, the Redskins also missed a number of scoring opportunities in the four games.

"Our defense really played a great game against Hamilton," Cherubin said. `Liz May marked Katie Murphy (who had four goals in the first meeting, a 6-2 Hamilton win) and Marcie Foster and Alissa Valentine also played great defense along with Amy Kane in goal."

...The Redskins lost stopper Erin Collier for two weeks with a concussion suffered against Morrisville.