Late in the contest, with the ball swirling near its own net, the East Syracuse-Minoa boys soccer team had a hard time imagining it would emerge with anything other than a defeat from Thursday’s battle with Christian Brothers Academy.
Somehow, the Spartans withstood it all, and thanks to a timely burst from Jeff Smith, ESM beat the Brothers 2-1 in overtime for, arguably, its most important win of the season.
CBA arrived at this game with a new no. 20 state Class A ranking nnd coming off a great week – a string of wins over J-D, Homer and Fayetteville-Manlius where Andrew DePerro scored eight goals and the Brothers climbed into the state Class A rankings.
ESM, at 7-2, was unranked, but the defending Class A champions burned to reestablish its own place atop the pecking order, and got on the board against the Brothers in the first half with Sam Baadani’s goal.
DePerro found the net for the Brothers, fed by Jared Sayles, and it was 1-1 at halftime. It would remain that way throughout a tense second half, but as regulation wound down CBA attacked hard, trying to get the game-winner.
Both there, and in the early stages of sudden-death overtime, the Spartans’ defense remained stingy, Cameron Schiavone compiling 16 saves overall. And it paid off when, later in the OT, Jeff Smith beat CBA keeper Mike Smith for the game-winner.
Two days earlier, ESM’s October slate began with a 4-0 shutout of Cortland, a game that was tight until the Spartans put away the Purple Tigers with a trio of second-half goals.
Four different ESM players – Tyler Ott, Cole Belcher, Jarrett Temple and Chris Schiavone – would find the net, with Schiavone and Dan Lewis each getting an assist. Cameron Schiavone, playing in goal, stopped all seven shots he faced to preserve the shutout.
Right after that hot late-September stretch, the Brothers would struggle in last Tuesday’s game against Fulton, pulling out a 1-0 victory over the Red Raiders.
DePerro was the prime target of Fulton’s defense, and they did keep him off the board. Also, Robert Borrow made 15 saves, keeping it 0-0 into the second half.
Finally, the Brothers would inch out in front, thanks to Sayles, who took a pass from Zach Zajdel and slid the shot past Borrow. CBA’s defense got the shutout as Mike Smith recorded six saves.
