Lewiston-Porter and Grand Island look to outdo each other with each goal, like two titans on the pitch. With each game comes an intensity, like getting bragging rights over your brother.
The two schools are only 18 miles away from each other, but each has logged hardware and clashes for 60 years. Including their class championship wins Saturday, the Lancers and Vikings have combined for 26 Niagara Frontier League championships and 25 Section VI titles.
The last decade featured Grand Island and Lew-Port competing in separate classes, primarily in A1 and A2. But now the Vikings and the Lancers are squaring off on a grander stage.
The stakes of the rivalry increase when the 18-0-1 Vikings and the 16-1-2 Lancers duel for the section’s overall Class A championship at 5 p.m. Tuesday at West Seneca West High School. The winner advances to the Far West regional Nov. 9 at Geneseo High School, with Lew-Port looking for its second trip in three years and Grand Island its first since 2016.
“It’s exciting because of the stage,” Lewiston-Porter head coach Rick Sweeney said. “There’s a rivalry because we see each other twice a year in league play. And there’s a familiarity with that and with that comes a little bit of a history that’s got more chapters. So there is that element to it that makes it a little bit different than it would be with another team … and we know that they’re a top-notch team.”
Since 2011, the Lew-Port-Grand Island rivalry has been a dead heat, with an 11-11-3 record in 25 meetings. And, nine contests have been decided by one goal or less.
The intensity carried over into Grand Island’s and Lew-Port’s two meetings during the regular season. The first encounter ended in a 0-0 draw on Sept. 13, while the Vikings scored four second-half goals for a 4-1 win on Oct. 9.
Both teams have provided high-scoring offenses and strong defenses, heading into the final. Lew-Port is ranked second in the section with 117 goals, while Grand Island is ranked eighth with 91 goals.
And in net, Grand Island’s Jacob Csiceri and Lew-Port’s Chuck Orsi have allowed a combined 15 goals and posted 27 combined shutouts. But when the final begins, the past experience with each team won’t apply, as they compete for the championship.
“I’ve been reminding the boys that you take it as you’ve never played this team before,” Grand Island head coach Robert Ross said. “You don’t think about the past, you think about the present and you go out there and you play your game and you play as fast as you can. … It’s like a normal sectional championship game. You go in there and you play your absolute hardest, no matter what the results were before.”
The rivalry also brings firepower in the attacking zone. Luke Leardini leads Lew-Port with 38 goals, including five in the postseason, while Jack Pachla leads Grand Island with 20 goals, with three in the playoffs.
Both teams have taken notes from studying each other after the two meetings. Lew-Port wants to prevent Grand Island’s restart chances after 133 corners, while the Vikings want to slow down the Lancers’ attackers, Leardini and Seamus O’Keefe, who have combined for 56 goals this season, but just one total in two games against Grand Island.
Competing for the Class A championship will mark another entry for a rivalry that has grown over the decades, with both teams receiving notice from across the state. Grand Island and Lew-Port are ranked second and 18th in the latest Class A state rankings from the New York State Sportswriters Association on Oct. 27.
“It’s a rivalry that’s grown from the sense of the quality, I think, of each program that’s been sustained among those at the top of the Western New York soccer community,” Sweeney said. “So I think there’s rivalries amongst teams at any level. But it’s grown in the sense that it’s two of the stronger programs historically and I’m sure they take a lot of pride in that, as do we.”