It’s now reached a point where the further the Jamesville-DeWitt girls soccer team goes in earning consecutive Section III championships, the more historic it will get.
The mark now sits at nine straight sectional titles in the wake of Friday night’s 2-1 victory by the Red Rams over Christian Brothers Academy in the Class A final at SUNY-Cortland, achieved with a pair of goals by Lainey Foti and a defense that, again, delivered a clutch performance.
Though this J-D squad may have, at times, lacked the overall firepower many of the previous Rams teams had in the championship run that started back in 2009, it did not lack in an ability to take away an opponent’s ability to put anything on the board.
J-D won 15 of its previous 16 games this season by shutout, and had every intention of doing the same to a CBA side that had knocked off no. 3 seed East Syracuse Minoa and no. 2 seed Fulton to get this far.
Throughout the first half, Aryssa Lux, Ava Brazie, Grace Bridge and Hayley Quackenbush played forward, patiently feeding the ball to the front line and protecting goalie Katie Cappelletti, who only had to make a handful of stops.
CBA defended well, too, with Katelyn Courcy, Julia Sullivan and Meghan Bargabos preventing many J-D shots, but in the 35th minute Foti, working from the right side, struck a hard shot that just trickled out of the hands of keeper Catherine Burns past the goal line.
Up 1-0 at halftime, J-D wasn’t that content, and probed for a bigger lead early in the second half. It took less than six minute to earn a free kick that Foti, from 30 yards out, hit perfectly, a curving shot that found the top right side out of the net, out of Burns’ reach.
Given the way the Rams were dominating possession, a two-goal lead seemed a lot larger, but in the 51st minute the Brothers made a rare foray into J-D’s end and, amid a scramble, Katy Stanard headed home the goal.
With the margin down to one, the Rams didn’t change strategy, instead simply possessing the ball for much of the last 28 minutes in an efficient and effective manner until yet another sectional championship was secured.
On Tuesday, J-D, no. 3 in the state Class A rankings, returns to the state tournament with a steep challenge against undefeated Section II champion Scotia-Glenville at Stillwater High School. Two regional wins are needed for the Rams to reach the Nov. 11-12 state final four back in the Cortland area.
