Although they put had together a dominant season, earning the No. 1 seed in the Class B playoffs in the process, there was something the Bronxville Broncos play style that gave head coach Don Cupertino pause, at times. His team—while talented—had a tendency to start slow, often taking their time before making a second half run to put away its opponents. Sunday’s Class B championship game between the Broncos and Briarcliff was a different story all together, however, as Bronxville came out of the gates firing, jumping all over the Bears from the opening   whistle and winning yet another Section I title with a dominant 4-0 victory. 

The Broncos struck twice in the first twenty minutes, first on a rebound by Lily Jebejian and again on another rebound by Alice Vranka just a few moments later. Bronxville continued to apply pressure throughout the game, adding two more scores in the second half while limiting the Bears to just two shots on net.

According to Vranka, who led the Broncos with two goals, Bronxville came into Sunday’s championship showdown cognizant of the fact they couldn’t afford to be on their heels against the Bears.

“This game was different, we came out as strong as we possibly could because we didn’t want this to be our last game,” Vranka said. “We gave it all we had through the first minute and continued to do that for the rest of the game.”

Cupertino acknowledged that he saw a different level of intensity from his girls from the opening minute and noted that, against a team like Briarcliff—which came into Sunday’s game having surrendered just one goal all season—the key to success was an unrelenting attack. That strategy paid dividends as three of the Broncos four goals came as a direct result of second chance points and aggressiveness in the box.

“You don’t say this, but our goal wasn’t to score, it was just to create pressure,” Cupertino said. “We wanted to put the ball on the goal and just create as many opportunities as we could.”

With the win, Bronxville (17-1-1) will advance to the Class B state regional finals—Section I has a first-round bye in the state tournament this year—which will be held on Nov. 5 at Arlington High School. According to Vranka, the opportunity to continue on past Section I play is especially meaningful for the team’s returning players, as Bronxville’s season ended last year after the state playoffs were abandoned due to Covid-19 concerns.

“We worked so hard for this, and last year our season got cut off because we couldn’t go any further,” she said. “This year, we have the opportunity to keep going and we’re so excited.”

As the team waits for its regional final opponent to be determined, Cupertino said this week of practice will be about getting back to basics and concentrating on the things that made Bronxville such a dominant force within Section I this year.

“We’re back to preseason again,” he said. “But hopefully we’ll get some film and we’ll see.”

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