Even though it didn’t have to travel much last week, the East Syracuse-Minoa girls soccer team found itself in an unenviable position, having to face powerful neighbors Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt in a 48-hour span.
The Brothers arrived at ESM Stadium last Tuesday afternoon, none too pleased after a 2-0 defeat at Fulton on Sept. 7, and with an efficient performance CBA blanked the Spartans 3-0.
As other foes would do, ESM’s defense honed in on the Brothers’ star forward, Eva Gordon, and did hold her scoreless. But Gordon did get an assist, and her teammates continually flashed open.
That helped lead to a 1-0 lead at halftime, and CBA added two more after the break. Kate LaCasse found the net twice, with Maddy Calkins earning the other goal. Emily Ehle and Gabby Carni joined Gordon in the assist column.
ESM could get nothing past Brothers goalie Lindsey Evans, who picked up six saves. Her Spartans counterpart, Kristen Raab, earned 10 saves.
Then the Spartans paid its visit to J-D on Thursday afternoon, perhaps hoping that the Red Rams, playing in the middle of a stretch of four games in six days, would show a bit of fatigue.
J-D addressed that problem by scoring twice early in a 3-1 victory over the Spartans. The Rams’ attack didn’t always convert, as Raab again made 10 saves, but it did enough in the early going to pull through.
Paige Sherling, Maddy Devereaux and Alex Fontana each scored for J-D, while Allie Balotin added an assist. Kaitlyn Shaughnessy notched ESM’s lone goal in the second half, assisted by Ashley Scalzo.
Just before its game with ESM, J-D found out just what CBA had learned the week before – namely, how tough Fulton was getting.
The Red Raiders, who beat the Brothers 2-0 on Sept. 7, pushed the reigning Class A champs hard, too, in last Monday’s game before J-D pulled out a 1-0 victory.
Throughout the first half, the Rams ran at Fulton’s stacked defense, but could not break through. But J-D maintained its patience, and finally got the lead in the second half when Caroline Kopp put in an unassisted goal. All the Red Raiders could manage was three shots.
When the Red Rams went back home to face Homer less than 24 hours later, it got past that one-goal mark quickly, and didn’t stop there on the way to taming the Trojans 7-2.
Without a lot of stress, J-D worked its way to a 3-0 halftime lead, and kept adding to that margin, even though Homer’s Kim Dieroff would score twice in the second half.
Jessica Holmes, with two goals, and Ella Digiovanni, with a goal and two assists, led J-D’s well-balanced effort. Sherling, Sarah Marron, Amber Hyatt and Emily Hauser scored, too, with Devereaux contributing an assist.
CBA moved from the ESM victory to another tricky test at Cortland on Thursday afternoon, but the Brothers handled it, shutting out the Purple Tigers 2-0.
A goal in each half was enough production as Marisa Romeo, quiet in the ESM game, scored here, as did Hailey Dobbins. Chloe Germain contributed an assist, and though Cortland had plenty of opportunities to get on the board, Evans turned them away, earning nine saves overall.
