By Dean Russin

Sports Editor

A 12-3-2 season and a second straight Tri-Valley League West Division title has earned Melanie Mumbulo and her Edmeston girls soccer team little more than a footnote this season.

That’s because the talk of the Tri-Valley is Milford, the once-beaten defending league champion that holds the No. 2 seed for the Section Four Class D Tournament and the No. 4 ranking in the state.

Edmeston will try to emerge from the massive shadow of its fiercest rival at 1 p.m. Saturday, when the Panthers take on Milford (16-1) for the second straight season in the T-V championship game at the Wright National Soccer Campus.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]"Everybody keeps asking me how are we going to defend them, but nobody’s asking how are they going to defend us," Mumbulo said. "I’ve got six kids scoring on a consistent basis."

But no Panther is even close to what the top two scorers in Milford have put up this season.

Sophomores Maria Arnot and Brenna Campbell are among the top four area scorers this season, with 84 and 72 points, respectively. A third Milford player, senior Logan Campbell, ranks six points higher than Edmeston’s No. 1 offensive threat. Senior forward Erin Olsen is the only Panther among the top 35 scorers in the area this season, with 24 points on 10 goals and four assists.

Despite its lofty offensive numbers, though, Milford’s loss this season, 3-0, came against a defense-oriented Worcester team that played Edmeston to a scoreless tie. The Wildcats also had tight games against Delaware League affiliate Margaretville (2-1), Worcester (2-1 in overtime) and state-ranked New Lebanon (5-4).

Additionally, half of Milford’s 16 victories came against teams who finished the regular season with losing records. The Wildcats scored 59 of their 85 goals (69 percent) in those eight triumphs.

Edmeston has similar numbers under the same guidelines. Eight of the Panthers’ victories and 21 of their 36 goals (58 percent) have come against opponents with losing records.

"We only have three losses — to some very good teams," said Mumbulo, whose team fell, 4-0, to Milford on Sept. 19, following a 5-1 loss to New Lebanon and a 4-0 loss to Cincinnatus in The Daily Star Hall of Fame Cup at the WNSC. "We’re not blowing teams out, and I didn’t expect us to. I like it when we play closer games because that’s what you’re going to see now."

Milford clinched the East Division title in its second go-around with Worcester on Oct. 5. The Wolverines packed the 18-yard box, forcing a scoreless tie after 80 minutes of regulation. Arnot scored twice in overtime, once on a slash inside the box and again from beyond the 18-yard line, to knock Worcester out of contention.

The Wolverines may have played into Milford’s hands in the decisive game as the Wildcats seemed right at home working the perimeter. Milford outshot Worcester, 32-9, and often ran a set play where the Wildcats would dribble to a top corner of the box and pass back to an open teammate at the center of the 18-yard line.

"We tend not to try to run it inside the box," said Milford coach Lorin Campbell, the father of Logan and Brenna. "When they have it, they need to take it, not walk it through the box. I’ve got some good feet and this is the strongest team I’ve had as far as shooting goes."

Should Milford receive similar opportunities to shoot from the outside, the Wildcats could negate the efforts of first-year Edmeston keeper Suellyn Tophoven.

"From a keeper’s standpoint, an outside shot is harder to defend because you don’t see it coming off the foot," said Mumbulo, a former high school goalie. "If this game is like the first one, a lot of the play will be among the field players more than goalkeepers."

Tophoven has seven games under her belt, taking over full-time for Rose Davis on Oct. 8 after the senior was lost for the season with a partial medial collateral ligament in her right knee, Mumbulo said.

Edmeston brings a seven-game unbeaten streak into Saturday’s final, and Tophoven has been the goalie its last three triumphs. Milford, winner of 14 in a row, will get its first look this season at Tophoven and junior forward Meghan Lottridge, who missed the first meeting with an undisclosed medical condition. Lottridge has four goals and four assists in limited action this fall, and Olsen has come on strong at center forward with six goals in Edmeston’s last four games.

The duo could challenge first-year Milford goalie Chynna Pitlock, a sophomore, and a young Wildcats defense that has matured considerably since the start of the season — provided they get past the speedy Campbells in the midfield.

Edmeston would be wise to concentrate on Arnot, too, as she has scored two or more goals in all but three games this season and has been shut out only once.

"It will probably be determined by the first 15 minutes as to which moves we make," said Mumbulo, whose team shared the T-V title with Milford in 1998. "I’ve got a lot of young kids, so sometimes we come out on fire and sometimes it takes a half to get going."

Milford may have a slight "home-field" edge as the Wildcats are 3-0 at the WNSC this fall, winning their division in The Daily Star Hall of Fame Cup and beating Windham, 11-0, in a non-league game Sept. 20.

"I’m not expecting an easy game," Lorin Campbell said. "As far as Saturday goes, if my girls come to play, I’m not concerned."