Down to its second goalkeeper, the East Syracuse-Minoa boys soccer team dreaded ending up on the wrong end of a regular-season sweep by Jamesville-DeWitt.
But the Spartans withstood all of the Red Rams’ late pushes and emerged from last Tuesday’s game with a 0-0 draw, relieved that it had not squandered the momentum from its Oct. 4 overtime win over Christian Brothers Academy.
In that win over the Brothers, goalie Cameron Schiavone made a series of spectacular stops to keep his side even until Jeff Smith won it in OT.
Now, against a J-D side that beat the Spartans 3-1 on Sept. 13, ESM played a sound and disciplined first half, rarely letting the Rams get too close, though Tom Canfield did feed Nigel Knox-Shellman in the 32nd minute for a great opportunity that Knox-Shellman pulled well off the target.
ESM’s best opportunity to win it came late in the second half. With 4:10 left, J-D goalie Morgan Sawyer was caught out of position and the Spartans’ Jacob Kohlbrenner had an open net in front of him, but shot it wide.
So it went to sudden-death overtime. Midway through the first OT, amid a scramble in front of his net, Schiavone got hurt, forcing ESM to turn to defender Jordan Laneuville to go into goal.
Sensing a chance to win, J-D, cautious in large portions of the game, went all-out, and seconds after coming into the game Jordan Van Stry appeared to be going in for the game-winner, only to have Laneuville make a sliding save well in front of the cage.
Both Laneuville and Sawyer made saves in the second OT as the teams just beat darkness, leaving J-D still one victory short of Class A playoff qualification.
More big news arrived on Thursday afternoon, when CBA dealt undefeated, state Class A no. 5-ranked Fowler its first loss of the season, prevailing by a 3-2 margin.
Having lost to the Falcons on Sept. 18, the Brothers learned how to defend them, and it put up enough resistance while staking itself to a 2-1 halftime lead.
Fowler got another goal in the second half, but CBA converted, too, hanging on to its slim margin behind the work of goalie Ethan Wiley, who finished with eight saves.
As he has done all season, Andrew DePerro sparked the Brothers’ attack, earning a pair of goals as Matt Marzocchi put in the other goal. Jean Paul Mboyo paced the Falcons with one goal and one assist.
This followed a 7-0 romp over Cortland where Andrew DePerro again put up a three-goal hat trick, his third of the season.
Matt DePerro had a goal and two assists as Jake Dinger got one goal and one assist. Steve Castellini, Zach Zajdel, Matt Stedman and Keith Hyunh all contributed to the scoring effort, too.
As this went on, J-D went to Mexico and blanked the Tigers 5-0, breaking its offensive dry spell with a trio of first-half goals and continuing to build from there.
Xander Ferlenda had a career effort, scoring three times for his first varsity hat trick. Adam Resetarits had a goal and assist, while Sam Dye also found the net. Canfield, Peter Slisz, Luca Pelligra and Lucas Johnson each had one assist.
ESM also won on Thursday, holding off Homer 2-1. In the first half, Dan Lewis and Alem Hozo both scored, with Irfan Tihic adding an assist. Then the Trojans’ Dylan Shattuck struck in the second half, but Schiavone, back in the net, stopped everything else and finished with six saves.
CBA will meet J-D on Thursday afternoon, just after the Red Rams face Cortland and the Brothers meet Mexico. ESM, meanwhile, gets its own shot at Fowler on Thursday, two days after playing Fulton, as the regular season comes to an end.
