Half a decade ago, the question was simply about whether the Jamesville-DeWitt girls soccer team would ever win a Section III Class A championship.
Now, the Red Rams have five consecutive sectional titles on the ledger, none of them more dramatically earned than Saturday night’s 1-0, triple-overtime decision over East Syracuse-Minoa in the Class A final at SUNY-Cortland.
From 2009, when it finally broke through and beat ESM 4-0 for that first sectional crown, to the trio of title-game wins over Whitesboro in each of the next three years, J-D was able to win without going beyond the 80 minutes of regulation.
But that changed here as ESM, whose last title came in 1997, tried to complete an unlikely journey from a no. 7 seed all the way to the championship.
Having taken J-D to overtime two months ago at ESM Stadium (the Rams won that game 2-1 on Sept. 3, plus a 3-1 rematch three weeks later), the Spartans knew all the ways in which the four-time champs would attack them.
And that led to a superb defensive effort that covered more than 100 minutes of game time on a wet, cold evening in Cortland. ESM’s back line kept thwarting J-D at every turn, managing to keep the game 0-0 throughout the first half, and then the second half as Amanda Goodhines only had to make five saves.
As the game wore on, the pressure on the Rams grew. But its experienced back line, anchored by Maggie Austin, Caroline Kopp, Maddy Frank and Julia Slisz, kept ESM frustrated, too, as goalie Allie Butler gathered up four saves.
Regulation didn’t settle the game, and nor did 20 minutes of standard overtime, played out in full. Now they would play a pair of five-minute sudden-victory periods, and if it stayed 0-0, J-D and ESM would share the sectional title, and use penalty kicks to determine who went into the state tournament.
Just as the first of these sudden-victory periods was winding down, the Rams earned a free kick. Kopp hit it into a scrum of players in front of the ESM net, and the ball bounced around until Paige Sherling got a foot on it and pushed a shot that eluded Goodhines and found the net.
In an instant, J-D had won, and ESM was heartbroken, even as the Spartans could take solace in a 12-7-1 season that pushed them to the brink of glory.
J-D earned that glory, though, and now faces yet another Class A regional playoff against perennial Section II power Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake on Tuesday at Stillwater High School.
No doubt, Burnt Hills remembers how J-D stunned them 1-0 in last year’s regional round at Fulton, atoning for three straight defeats to that same team in the regionals from 2009 to ’11.
Now the Red Rams meets the Spartans for a fifth straight year in the regional round – which is getting as traditional as J-D claiming sectional honors.
