In terms of sheer proximity, never had the Jamesville-DeWitt girls soccer team got as close to a long-elusive state Class A championship than it did Sunday afternoon at Cortland High School.
The Red Rams found itself in overtime of the state title game against Long Island’s Valley Stream South, but were unable to get on the board and took a 1-0 defeat to the Falcons.
“We didn’t play our game,” said senior Hayley Quackenbush. “We just couldn’t get around them.”
Head coach Hayley Nies said that the Falcons’ size and physical play bothered J-D from the outset, and it showed itself as the normally potent Rams were unable to generate many legitimate scoring chances.
Yet it remained 0-0 through regulation and most of one mandatory 10-minute overtime period, a tribute to the all-out effort put together on defense by Quackenbush, Arysa Lux, Ava Brazie and Denise Yaeger, plus timely stops by goalkeeper Katie Cappelletti.
Only in the last minute of the first OT did the Rams’ defensive façade break down, something that hadn’t happened in three previous state playoff games, all shutouts.
VSS had picked up its pressure and earned three corner kicks in that OT. On the third try, Brianna Pizzaro, with her left foot, found Kayla Comacho, whose shot eluded Cappeletti and fit inside the right post.
Though another full 10-minute extra period remained, J-D could not answer it as the Falcons deftly possessed the ball, just as it had done throughout the afternoon, to preserve its slim margin.
This was all set up – and to a degree, caused – by the memorable turn of events in Saturday night’s state semifinal at Tompkins Community College, when J-D put an end to the incredible 64-match unbeaten streak of two-time defending state champion Spencerport in another 1-0 OT classic.
Part of Spencerport’s long unbeaten streak was defeating the Rams 2-1 in the 2016 state final. Now they were together again, and through 80 minutes of regulation and most of the 20 minutes of overtime, neither side gave in.
All through the cold evening, the Rams’ back line constantly turned back the Rangers, especially in a key stretch early in the second half after it got the wind at its back.
Somehow, Cappelletti, later named with Lux to the All-Tournament team, kept the ball in front of her, making two big stops on a Spencerport free kick late in the second half, and regulation ended 0-0. So did the first OT period.
Six minutes remained in the second OT period when J-D earned a corner kick. Quackenbush, as usual, took it, having scored directly off one of these kicks more than two months ago amid steamy, hot conditions in a season-opening win over East Syracuse Minoa.
Now, with the temperature at least 60 degrees colder, Quackenbush again sent the ball toward the net. It flew directly to the Spencerport goalie and glanced off her hands into the top of the net.
Great as this victory was, it was also draining. It ended past 9 p.m., and just 15 hours later J-D was facing Valley Stream South, who had also gone to OT in its state semifinal (a 3-2 win over Vestal) but had played earlier on Saturday, so it had more rest.
Nies said that she wished her players had more of a chance to recover, but would not cite that as an excuse for the defeat to the Falcons, the third time the Rams had reached a state final without winning it, to go with two other state final four visits.
With just five seniors graduating, J-D has ample reason to think that, in 2019, it will, at the very least, extend its streak of 10 consecutive sectional titles. One of the returning players, Grace Dimkopoulos, said she was confident that the Rams’ long, frustrating quest for a state championship will conclude.
“We’ll get it one year,” said Dimkopoulos.