Having survived a wild 5-4 battle with Section II champion Mohonasen at the outset of the state Class A girls soccer playoffs, Jamesville-DeWitt was in no mood for further stress with a state final four berth on the line.
So the state no. 1-ranked Red Rams went to Ogdensburg Free Academy to face Massena (Section X) in the Class A regional final. Again, J-D would light up the scoreboard, but this time it proved stress-free as it defeated the Red Raiders 4-0.
Getting those goals took a while, though, for in the first half Massena did an effective job containing the Rams, only surrendering a single goal. It wasn’t until after intermission that J-D got away, but the important part was that, unlike with Mohonasen, its defense made sure that growing lead wasn’t threatened.
With two more goals, Alex Catanzarite ran her season total to 31, adding an assist (her 11th of the season) along the way. Sophia Dimkopoulos contributed one goal and one assist, while Lainey Foti also found the net and Elena Haarer added an assist.
Now J-D finds itself back in the state final four, where three previous times it could not earn a state championship, twice reaching the finals before getting stopped by Long Island opponents – Southside in 2012, Islip in 2015.
Once again, a Long Island champion greets the Rams Saturday in the state semifinal at Tompkins Community College in Dryden as J-D takes on Garden City at 3 p.m. The winner goes to SUNY-Cortland Sunday at 12:15 for the state final against Pearl River (Section I) or Spencerport (Section V).
