Even though the Fayetteville-Manlius girls soccer team beat Jamesville-DeWitt in the championship round of last Saturday’s J-D “King of the Hill” Tournament, both sides had to leave the venue feeling good.
The Hornets, 11-6-2 a season ago, have seven starters back, and head coach Kory McMahon’s forces showed lots of exciting offensive ability during the course of the Labor Day weekend.
As for the Red Rams, it didn’t let the Hornets get away easily, and managed to introduce a pair of wildly talented freshmen to the fold.
F-M kicked off the festivities on Friday afternoon by putting up four first-half goals on Watertown and rolling past the Cyclones 6-0.
Jordan Monteleone, with two goals, led a balanced attack where Alexa Capozzi, Morgan Same, Brenna Kincaid and Bri Dolan got single tallies and F-M had 22 overall shots. Mary Hartzheim finished with two assists, while Erika Davin got a single assist.
Then it was J-D’s turn, against Nottingham, and that proved to be even more one sided as the Red Rams pounded the Bulldogs 8-0.
Tessa Deveraux, just a freshman, made a lights-out varsity debut with a three-goal hat trick, something her junior teammate, Tori Nies, managed to match as she found the net three times. Ashriel West had two goals and one assist.
Meanwhile, Emily Elbers, like Devereaux, managed to earn an assist, the same as teammate Emily Nuss. Sarah Gianni did not have to work too hard in goal, making just one save.
This led to Saturday’s final between F-M and J-D, an active affair where the Hornets never trailed, but had to work to the end to beat the Red Rams 4-2.
Threatening to make it an early runaway, F-M rushed ahead 2-0 when Capozzi scored 1:08 into the contest and Davin ripped a shot off the left post into the net at the 8:22 mark.
Less than five minutes later, though, Deveraux rushed in and fed West for a goal to get J-D on the board. Hartzheim answered in the 25th minute, and the Hornets took a 3-1 advantage to the break.
Each side slowed down a bit in the second half, but J-D threatened again when Deveraux, continually dribbling her way past befuddled defenders, found Elbers for a goal in the 59th minutes that made it 3-2.
Refusing to pack it in, F-M stayed aggressive enough in the homestretch, which paid off when Cappozi’s beautiful header off a feed from Davin clinched the outcome with 1:49 left.
In other Saturday girls action, Bishop Grimes opened by beating General Brown 4-0, as Donna Comins scored twice and Samantha Schaefer earned two assists. Alana Hurley and Emma Kelley notched goals of their own.
Exiting the tournament 2-0, F-M begins CNY Counties League play Wednesday against West Genesee at Swan Pond, then gets a huge test Friday when defending Class AA champion Cicero-North Syracuse shows up. J-D gets home games against three neighborhood rivals — CBA, East Syracuse-Minoa and Chittenango — in a span of seven days, starting on Wednesday afternoon.
