Not since the 2013 Section III Class A championship game had the Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt boys soccer teams squared off.
But when they met again last Thursday night at Alibrandi Stadium, the result was the same – in favor of the Brothers, who rode a strong all-around effort to a 2-0 victory over the Red Rams.
A large crowd, with loud student sections from both schools, was on hand, and they saw the two neighbors battle throughout the night, with CBA enjoying a bit more time on the attack.
That paid off in the 25th minute when J-D committed a foul inside the 18-yard penalty area. Given the penalty shot, Matt DePerro converted, and the Brothers led 1-0, which stood until halftime.
For most of the second half, the Rams’ defense did everything it could to keep the team close, and had the occasional attack, too, only to get thwarted by goalie Mike Smith and his five saves.
J-D netminder David Newman had seven saves, but could not prevent Monte Stroman from drilling a hard shot into the net with 10 minutes left, giving the Brothers a bit of a cushion and its ultimate two-goal margin.
They went into the game coming off vastly different efforts against vastly different opponents last Tuesday, with J-D reeling from a 3-1 defeat to Fowler and CBA soaring after a 5-0 shutout over East Syracuse-Minoa.
Without a doubt, Fowler had remembered how, as a top seed and defending champion, J-D had stunned them 2-0 in last fall’s Section III Class A semifinal.
At Burnet Park, the Falcons got a small bit of payback, hurting J-D with constant pressure and keeping the ball in other end. And whenever the Rams tried to push forward, Fowler’s defenders quickly recovered, getting back and closing up the space before it could take a shot.
Midway through the first half, Fowler went up, 1-0, as Abdullah Abdulkareem put in a perfect header off Jean-Paul Mboyo’s corner kick. It stayed that way until the 55th minute, when Mboyo flung a shot past J-D goalie David Newman.
Pestered all afternoon, Newman made 13 saves, and got help when Fowler banged two shots off the crossbar. But a nifty, curving goal by Yusuf Ghanem late in the second half closed things out, though Jake Socia did score in the waning minutes to prevent a shutout.
By stark contrast, CBA, boosted in confidence by the scare it gave to Fayetteville-Manlius on Sept. 13 in the “Red Out” game at Swan Pond (it lost 1-0 on a last-second header by Dante Pavone), would roll through ESM in a 5-0 decision.
Matt DePerro got it going, scoring in the 17th minute, and minutes later Monte Stroman converted to make it 2-0, which it remained until halftime.
Maintaining the pressure, CBA started to get away when, at the 56-minute mark, DePerro notched his second goal off a feed from Jake Dinger, who had three assists on the night. Eight minutes later, Paul Civello joined in with a goal, and Stroman added a second goal with 11:30 left, assisted by Parker Johnston.
Two days later, and before CBA went on to blank J-D, ESM put away Oswego by a 4-1 margin, getting a big effort from Tyler Ott, who scored twice and added an assist. Brad Hartung added one goal and one assist, with Cole Belcher also finding the net. Kyle Scalzo contributed an assist and, in the net, Jason Swerdoski stopped nine of the 10 shots he faced.
Then ESM defeated Solvay 3-2 on Saturday afternoon, overcoming Ruslan Solovoskiy’s pair of first-half goals for the Bearcats by getting a 2-2 halftime lead and inching out in front late. Ott had two of the Spartans’ three goals, with Scalzo earning the other and Hartung putting up an assist.
J-D’s skid would end that same day with a 5-1 romp over Oswego, where it led 3-0 at halftime and kept going behind Nate Shimer’s pair of goals. Socia, Tyler Lichtenstein, and Carson LaRussa had one goal apiece, with Elias Gantos, Charlie DiGristina and Jordan VanStry each getting one assist.
