Whether the circumstances were conventional or improbable, the end result was the same – Jamesville-DeWitt has two soccer teams that are two victories away from the state Class A championship.
Having traveled this path many times before, the girls Red Rams almost got knocked out in Saturday’s regional final against Mohonasen at Mechanicville High School, but survived penalty kicks to defeat the Warriors.
Not far away, at Colonie High School, the J-D boys continued its unlikely post-season journey with a new twist – namely, taking an early lead and then hanging on from there to defeat Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake 1-0.
The story of the J-D girls has included 11 consecutive Section III Class A titles and a string of regional titles, but none of them carried the sheer tension that this one against state no. 1-ranked Mohonasen.
Through 80 minutes of regulation, it remained scoreless. This put immense pressure on Ava Brazie, Grace Bridge, Denise Yaeger and the rest of the Rams’ back line, who did a superb job of containing the Warriors’ top scoring duo of Alex Scoda and Liv Raucci.
And when it was needed, goalie Katie Cappelletti would make key stops, scooping up a dangerous Raucci free kick late in the first half. Her work got more vital when Yaeger, affected by a collision early in the game, had to leave by the time the two sides reached a pair of mandatory 10-minute overtime periods.
Those extra periods went without a goal, Cappelletti stopping Raucci point-blank 90 seconds into the first OT and Izzy O’Clair just missing the target for Mohonasen in the second OT.
A pair of five-minute sudden-victory periods also went scoreless, so at 0-0, with co-regional champions crowned, it went to penalty kicks to determine who reached the state final four.
Things looked bad for J-D when it missed its first two kicks. A Cappelletti save on Raucci kept it within range, so the Warriors only led 2-1 through three rounds when Sydney Baker converted.
In the fourth round, Mohonasen’s Matti Muller beat Cappelletti – but hit the crossbar. Suddenly with less pressure on her, Bridge scored, and it was 2-2 with one round left.
Again, the Warriors missed, and when Grace Dimkopoulos found the net, J-D had reached the state semifinals, where next Saturday at 3 p.m. it faces Long Island champion Shoreham-Wading River at SUNY-Cortland, the winner getting to Sunday’s final against Spencerport or Pearl River.
Earlier that same day, J-D’s boys soccer team, who had to knock off the top three seeds to earn its sectional Class A title (two of them in overtime decisions), found itself in its own tense battle against Burnt Hills.
Yet the character of the game changed when, in the 16th minute, the Rams earned a free kick – and Sam Bobrek, off a feed from Jackson Carmen, put it into the Spartans’ net.
Having played so much tied or from behind in this unlikely playoff run, J-D adjusted well to the role of holding a lead. Throughout the rest of the first half and the entire second half, the Rams’ defense, led by Bobrek, Will Quackenbush and Jacob Barry, fended off all of Burnt Hills’ challenges.
And with goalie Matt Gera recording six saves, J-D earned a trip to Middletown High School, where it meets Section V champion Greece Athena Saturday at 8:45 a.m. The title game is Sunday at 12:30.
