How does it feel to be a co-champion? Hamilton boys soccer not sure what to think after tie in Class D state final (32 photos)

Middletown, N.Y. — After the Class D boys soccer state championship medal ceremony, Hamilton boys soccer posed for a photo in its goal.

“Come on guys, smile!” an assistant coach said. “You’re the state champions!”

It certainly didn’t feel like it.

The Emerald Knights were crowned co-champions on Sunday afternoon at Middletown High School, tying 4-4 with Section V’s Fillmore for the Class D state title, the program’s sixth all-time and second straight. There are no penalty shootouts in the state championship game – Hamilton and Fillmore are the first co-champions since Poland and Chazy shared the Class D title in 2023.

Hamilton came back from a 3-1 second-half deficit to take a 4-3 lead with 14 minutes left, but Fillmore tied the game 4-4 with less than two minutes remaining in regulation, and though Hamilton had most of the chances in the 30 extra minutes, it couldn’t break through for the winner.

In the medal ceremony, neither team was crying, but only a few smiles dotted players’ faces. Most were straight-faced.

There was no dramatic hoisting of the trophy and no Gatorade bath for head coach Brian Rose. Hamilton didn’t even receive gold medals on the field.

“Honestly, it’s more disappointing than I thought it would be,” Emerald Knights star senior Gavin Hames said. “It’s cool that we won two in a row, but I wish we could have won it outright.

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“I absolutely wish it went to PKs,” Hames continued. “I just feel like it’s sports, there are winners and losers in sports. We’re kind of being treated like children, almost. If you miss a PK, you move on and you keep going. Ending in a tie in a final just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Fellow senior captain Levi Neuenschwander agreed.

“It’s a tough feeling to feel,” he said. “You don’t know how to act because you wanted to win and there’s no determination to who won… I wish there was a determined winner and you’re not sharing it.”

Rose understood his player’s disappointment, but guaranteed the team’s mood would shift on the bus ride home. In all of Hamilton’s rich soccer history, this was the first time the Emerald Knights had ever gone back-to-back atop the state.

That was something to celebrate, he said. While Neuenschwander and Hames wished the game had gone to a shootout to decide the winner, Rose disagreed.

“I don’t like PKs, especially for kids this age,” Rose said. “It’s a devastating thing… Is there something else? I don’t know. Do you add another 10 minutes?

“I don’t know what the solution is, but I don’t like pens. I think it’s a terrible way to have to crown a champion like that.”

Though a championship medal hung from Hames’ neck, the look on his face betrayed it. Does it feel like you’re a champion if the other team didn’t lose?

“Almost no, to be honest,” he said. “I mean, you can tell by (our) faces. It really doesn’t, especially because I feel like we were the better team on the day. The shots, we outshot them by 12, we played well as a team – it took us a minute to wake up – but it just really doesn’t feel like we won.”

Fillmore started the scoring just seven minutes in, but Hamilton’s Sawyer Latella answered three minutes later on a perfectly placed shot in the bottom left corner.

The two teams went back and forth for the rest of the half without any real chances before Levi Russell put Fillmore up 2-1 with less than three minutes remaining in the half. A corner kick sailed over Emerald Knights goalkeeper Elijah Meyers’ head and Russell was wide open to put it in at the back post.

Four minutes into the second half, Fillmore’s Brayden Walton scored to stretch the Eagles’ lead to 3-1.

“I was down in the dumps,” Neuenschwander said. “It felt like we were done.”

But just seven minutes later, Hamilton cut the lead in half. After a corner kick bounced around, Gavin Oney scored in a scrum at the goal line.

Immediately, the momentum shifted to the Emerald Knights.

Two minutes later, Hames drove down the right wing, split two defenders just inside the box and scored off a rebound from his initial shot.

In the 66th minute, Hames made another great run down the wing. His shot was saved, but Thomas Roy scored on the rebound to give Hamilton its first lead.

“I knew we were going to get the fourth,” Hames said. “And I did not think they were going to score again.”

With less than two minutes left in regulation, Fillmore’s Dawson Herbert miraculously tied the game on a one-time rebound from a corner kick that squirted out to the edge of the box.

Hamilton center back Caleb Neuenschwander received his third yellow card of the postseason in the state semifinals and was suspended for Sunday’s game. He’s Hamilton’s best player on corners, Hames said, and Fillmore scored three of its four goals from corners.

Though Hamilton’s players were not satisfied postgame, Rose was sure they’d come around.

“They’ll eventually realize – and you can already hear they’re shifting a little bit,” Rose said. “That they’re going to be really happy about this.”

The front of Hamilton’s jerseys this season has no words and no crest, just five stars in the center to represent its five state championships. It’s time to add another star – no matter if they beat another team to get it or not.

“We won. We got a star,” Rose said. “A state champion is a state champion. If you have to be co-state, hey, you know, you still finished at the top and I think that’s a good thing.”