Though she may not have been one of the marquee figures going into the game, Amber Hyatt emerged as the main character in the Jamesville-DeWitt girls soccer team’s latest conquest of Christian Brothers Academy.
It was Hyatt, scoring her first career varsity hat trick, leading the Red Rams past the visiting Brothers 4-2 last Friday afternoon, completing a regular-season sweep as J-D had prevailed by a 2-0 margin at Alibrandi Stadium on Sept. 17.
Unlike that first meeting, CBA would get on the board, and did so in the first half, matching the Rams’ production and forging a 1-1 tie as the two neighbors went to halftime.
But as the pace quickened, J-D kept on attacking, and it led to a big second half, especially for Hyatt, who kept finding her way to the net and kept converting until she had picked up three goals on the afternoon.
Alex Fontana had J-D’s other goal, with Paige Sherling and Ella DiGiovanni getting the other goals. Allison Butler made seven saves as, for CBA, Hailey Dobbins scored one goal and assisted on the other, by Kate Lacasse.
Both J-D and CBA had close calls early in the week before squaring off again. The Red Rams had to pull out a 2-1 victory at Chittenango last Tuesday, a night after the Brothers fought past Cortland by a slim 1-0 margin.
CBA went first, going through a scoreless first half with the Purple Tigers, even though it had the ball most of the time and kept putting pressure on Cortland goalkeer Quinn Doubet, who would make eight saves.
Less than five minutes into the second half, though, Anna Schug flashed open and, taking a pass from Eva Gordon, beat Doubet for the go-ahead goal. Then the Brothers’ defense did the rest, holding the Purple Tigers to just three shots as it broke up most of the visitors’ chances.
J-D, who had grown quite accustomed to getting every opponent’s best shot as defending league and sectional champions, had the same experience at Chittenango.
The Bears had a pair of great early chances, but when one of them got halted, Paige Sherling tore downfield and, following a pair of deft passes, put in the game’s first goal. That 1-0 margin held up the rest of the half, the Rams maintaining control of the ball.
Midway through the second half, it was still 1-0, Caroline Kopp having just missed on a hard shot early in the half, but in the 63rd minute Alex Epifani found the net, having flashed open thanks to a nice pass from Alex Catanzarite.
That goal turned out to be the game-winner, for Chittenango pulled within one on Sara Pierce’s goal with 44.4 seconds left off Lauren Billington’s corner kick. The Bears could not follow that up in the little time that remained, though.
While all that was going on, East Syracuse-Minoa went through a tough week of competition, starting with last Tuesday’s 4-3 defeat to Homer.
Led by Julie Steinhauer, who would score twice, and Marissa Greiner, who got the other goal, ESM went up 2-1 on the Trojans by halftime.
But the Spartans’ defense got run over in the latter stages as Homer got goals from Carolyne Yonta, Haley Day, Kim Dieroff and Lisa Sharpe, with Yonta adding a pair of assists. Each of Nadine Downing’s seven saves (two more than Amanda Goodhines) would prove important.
Recovering two days later, ESM rolled past Mexico 5-1, a game that had some early doubt thanks to Amylyn Holland scoring in the first half to keep the Tigers within 2-1 at the break.
But ESM got away in the second half, spreading its production around. Sarah Britton scored twice, while Greiner, Ashley Scalzo and Haley Lighton earned one goal apiece. Caitlin Gagen notched a pair of assists as Lauren Ott and Natalie O’Brien got single assists.