Christian Brothers Academy boys soccer star Andrew DePerro has delivered 30 goals this season, nearly half his team’s total.
So it only figured that DePerro would deliver two of those goals in Wednesday night’s Section III Class A semifinal as the no. 2 seed Brothers eliminated no. 3 seed Whitesboro 3-0 at Chittenango High School.
This leads to a showdown of the top two seeds in the Class A title game. CBA will face Fowler, who ended the title reign of no. 4 seed East Syracuse-Minoa by that same 3-0 in the other Class A semifinal.
The Brothers’ narrow 2-1 escape against no. 7 seed Jamesville-DeWitt in the quarterfinal round delivered enough of a wake-up call. Thus, CBA was not going to underestimate Whitesboro, who had won its own 2-1 quarterfinal over Westhill to get this far.
In the game’s opening minutes, the Warriors were aggressive, and CBA goalkeeper Mike Smith had to make a diving save 5:20 into the game, which seemed to light a spark under the rest of the Brothers.
Soon enough, CBA was in front, thanks to DePerro. In the 15th minute, he took a long, accurate pass from his younger brother, Matt DePerro, on the right side and flung a low, hard shot past Warriors goalie Nick Crocilla, and the Brothers were up 1-0.
It would stay that way the rest of the half. Smith made the game’s biggest save on a Whitesboro free kick in the 36th minute, when the Warriors’ Dino Sisic hit a shot headed for the inside post when Smith again dove to stop it, one of six saves on the night.
Aggressive from the start of the second half, the Brothers probed until, less than five minutes into the half, Monte Stroman, a late-season call-up from the JV ranks, flung a 30-yard shot that fooled Crocilla and dove into the left side of the net.
DePerro would return once more to deliver a superb goal with 9:35 left to give him 30 for the season. Tim Corapi and Zach Zajdel joined Matt DePerro in the assist column.
And this leads CBA to Fowler, who suffered its only defeat of the season to the Brothers in mid-October. But the Falcons went 15-0-1 against everyone else, including a win over ESM, who now tried to match its upset of top seed J-D in last year’s semifinals on the way to the state final four.
Just 1:50 into the game, though, Fowler took advantage of ESM’s slow defensive response as Vincent Ndabaruta fed Abdulkareem AbdulKareem, who from the left side beat Cameron Schiavone for the go-ahead goal.
All through the half, ESM could not coordinate a consistent attack, allowing the Falcons to be patient when it had the ball. In the 34th minute, Jean-Paul Mboyo’s low corner kick got put into the net by Yahiya Donzo, and the Spartans trailed, 2-0, going into the half.
Through an active second half, ESM would pick up its pressure, constantly forcing free kicks and corner kicks against a Fowler side clearly in a defensive mode as it protected a two-goal margin.
The Falcons never flinched, though, turning back all of the Spartans’ chances, and biding its time on the attack until Mboyo charged in and put in the clinching goal in the final minute. ESM finished with a record of 12-5-1.
