A bit of odd scheduling had the East Syracuse Minoa and Jamesville-DeWitt boys soccer teams, who were tracking in opposite directions, both taking on Marcellus early in the penultimate week of the regular season.
ESM, still trying to recover from back-to-back 1-0 defeats to J-D and Mexico following a 9-0 start, went first at Marcellus last Monday night, and could not pull out of its rut, shut out for the third game in a row by the Mustangs in yet another 1-0 defeat.
Unlike with Mexico on Sept. 29, it didn’t go to overtime and, unlike with J-D on Oct. 1, the deciding tally didn’t come early. Instead, the lone goal for either team coming in the second half, when David Bosak, taking a pass from Alec Matysuk, pushed a shot past ESM goalie Ryan Cacace.
It was one of the few real chances in a game where the defenses clamped down for long stretches. In particular, the Mustangs were stingy, holding the Spartans to just three shots that Sam Hayduke had to scoop up. Cacace also had three saves.
J-D, who had overcome a 1-6 start to climb to the .500 mark, hosted Marcellus two nights later, and blew a 2-1 lead late in regulation, but recovered to go to overtime and, with a golden goal, edged the Mustangs 3-2.
The Rams took twice as many shots as Marcellus did, often thwarted by Hayduke, who stopped 14 of the 17 shots he faced. Still, Jacob Brazie twice beat him for goals, with Jake Socia also converting. Jack Botto and Ben Picone had one assist apiece.
On Saturday, J-D made it six wins in a row, topping Fowler 3-1 as it got the lone goal of the first half and added to that margin in the late going. Socia had one goal and one assist, with Brazie and Niko Modesti also finding the net and Liam O’Malley contributing an assist.
Returning home on Thursday night, ESM finally ended the scoring drought thanks to Jason Sweredoski’s goal in the 15th minute, assisted by Safet Suljic. But it would not score the rest of the night, and Devon Hastings tied it for the Redhawks, with Victor Lasserre earning the assist.
And there it would stay, the game ending in a 1-1 draw after 20 minutes of overtime that culminated with Cacace making a big point-blank stop in the waning seconds of the second extra period. It was Cacace’s ninth saves as Central Square’s Robby Howley and Rhys Rupracht combined to stop 11 of 12 ESM shots.
ESM did not win again until Saturday, when something special seemed to happen in a 3-0 shutout over the Fulton Red Raiders.
It was the “Kara Fund” game, named in honor of Kara MacDougall, the ESM student and soccer player who was diagnosed with liver cancer while an exchange student in Australia and passed away at age 17. All proceeds from the game would benefit the Kara Fund, which helps families dealing with serious health challenges.
Kara MacDougall wore no. 22 while at ESM. As it happened, Dan Barry currently wears the no. 22 jersey for the boys Spartans, though he had only played in a handful of games this fall.
On this day, though, Barry, perhaps channeling Kara’s spirit, netted a pair of goals to help ESM break out of its long scoring doldrums and pull away after only leading Fulton 1-0 at halftime . R.J. Bennink added a goal as Luke Rosaschi and Alex Kubecka got one assist apiece. Cacace and Connor Clappin combined on six saves.
Christian Brothers Academy may have taken a 4-2 loss to Fayetteville-Manlius in the ‘Red Out’ game on Oct. 1, but it also demonstrated its quick-strike capability, something that was rewarded last Tuesday night when it beat Cazenovia 3-0 at Alibrandi Stadium.
The Lakers, who spent a couple of weeks in the state Class B rankings, arrived at CBA with an 8-2-1 record, and it had plenty of opportunities throughout the game to get on the board, only to have the Brothers’ defenders turn them back and Matt Buck stop all 11 shots he faced.
Ahead 1-0 at halftime, CBA tacked on two more after intermission, seeing Malachi Emmanuel twice earn assists and Ryan Caballero add an assist for the three different players – Tobias Okongo, Dean Vlassis and Dan Polhemus – who earned those three goals, overcoming 15 saves from Cazenovia netminder Thomas Bragg.
Two nights later, the Brothers won big again, this time on the road as it blanked Cortland 5-0 to improve to 8-5-1 and clinch a winning regular-season record.
Just like with Cazenovia, the offensive production was spread out as Polhemus and Vlassis scored, but so did Tom Daviau, Justin Miller and Matt Potenza. Emmanuel, Alex Calkins and Dan Melvin got credit for assists.
