Having battled it out for Section III Class A honors a season ago, the Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt boys soccer teams could have that same fight once more.
It was the Brothers prevailing over the Red Rams in the 2013 sectional final. CBA had 10 seniors graduate, while J-D only lost four seniors from last year’s squad.
But it was the Rams getting on the field first, finding success in its Aug. 29 opener against Fulton, where a pair of late goals helped J-D beat the Red Raiders 2-0.
Neither side could find the net in a 0-0 first half. Then, after the break, J-D’s attack wore Fulton’s defense down, leading to a pair of goals from Jordan VanStry that proved decisive.
Then J-D made it two straight wins last Tuesday night, rolling past OHSL Freedom division newcomer Oswego 7-0 as it surpassed its Fulton total in the first half, gaining a 3-0 lead, and then kept pulling further away to earn head coach Joe Roach his 399th career victory.
Nine different players gained points by night’s end, with six different goal-scorers. Only Xander Ferlenda found the net twice, with Tyler Lichtenstein adding a goal and two assists.
VanStry, continuing his hot play, had one goal and one assist, while Jake Socia, Tyler Gabriel and Yusuf Abullayev each got their first goals of the season. Sam Mueller, Jacob Brazie and Nate Shimer earned single assists.
Now the Rams went for Roach’s 400th win as part of a weekend tournament at Liverpool, but could not win either game against tough Class AA opponents.
J-D lost, 4-0, to host Liverpool on Friday night. D.J. Newman recorded five saves, but the Warriors still got to him on a consistent basis, especially Jeff Meyers, who had a three-goal hat trick as Sam Fuller notched the other goal and two netminders, Ben Bowers and Tyler Lane, stopped all eight of the Rams’ shots.
During Saturday afternoon’s game against defending AA champion Baldwinsville, J-D kept the Bees off the board, but it still ended in a 0-0 draw, Newman managing to snag all six shots he faced, but the Rams just as quiet, managing just five shots, all of them stopped by Nick Lindovski.
By stark contrast, CBA had to open its season against a Fowler team that, in 2012, reached the state final four and, a year later, was atop the state rankings before J-D stunned them in the sectional semifinals.
Motivated to get back to the top, the Falcons got past the Brothers 2-1, doing all of its main damage in the first half as Jean-Paul Mboyo scored one goal and assisted on the other, by Vonka Rugira.
Trailing 2-0 at the break, CBA cut the margin in half with Matt DePerro’s goal, assisted by Monte Stroman, and went all-out trying to pull even and force overtime. Fowler goalie Abraham Teah held up well, though, earning eight saves.
Two nights later, the Brothers got into the win column, topping OHSL Freedom division newcomer 3-1 by overcoming Sean Benjamin’s first-half goal and moving in front, 2-1, by halftime.
DePerro carried the attack, scoring twice and assisting on Stroman’s tally as Jake Dinger joined Stroman in the assist column. Mike Smith stopped eight of the nine Buccaneers shots he faced.
East Syracuse-Minoa had its game with Fulton postponed until Oct. 11 at noon, so it opened a night later, playing Auburn to a 2-2 draw in a game where the Spartans and Maroons exchanged goals in the first and second half before finding themselves unable to break the tie in 30 minutes of overtime.
The two sides had even numbers of shots, with Noah Hodge and Cole Belcher scoring for ESM and Emmet Mack and Kobe Vanduyne finding the net for Auburn. Spartans goalie Jason Sweredoski had four saves, the same total as Maroons counterpart Austin Wansor.
When league play started for ESM on Friday, against Fowler, it led to a 4-0 defeat. For a half, the Spartans kept it scoreless thanks to the work of Sewerdoski, who had 15 saves, but the Falcons broke through in a big way during the second half, Moulid Ahmed scoring twice as Bernard Osei and Chris Butikima notched the other goals.
