Even though they were together throughout the regular season, the Jamesville-DeWitt and Christian Brothers Academy boys soccer teams found themselves in separate brackets once the Section III playoffs got underway.
J-D, who was all too glad not to worry about a CBA side it didn’t beat in two regular-season meetings, started as the no. 4 seed in Class A and flourished in last Wednesday’s opening round, rolling past the no. 13 seed Chittenango Bears 5-0.
Unleashing a deep, versatile attack, J-D had a 2-0 edge by halftime and kept building it, with Dean Kousmanidis anchoring the effort as he picked up a trio of assists.
Five different Red Rams – Josh Frank, Tyler Gabriel, Xander Ferlenda, Tyler Lux and Jake Socia – earned those five goals. Frank added an assist, joining Jordan VanStry in that column.
From there, J-D went on to Friday’s Class A quarterfinal against no. 5 seed Watertown, a game that proved quiet until a pair of big plays in the second half helped the Red Rams knock off the Cyclones by a 2-0 margin.
They played through a 0-0 first half. Then, early in the second half, J-D earned a free kick deep in Watertown’s end, and Tyler Lichtenstein, off a feed from Tyler Lux, blasted it past Cyclones goalie Noah Taylor to put his side in front.
Not sitting back with that one-goal edge, the Rams continued to probe, and later in the half doubled its margin when Jake Socia, at the end of a long sequence of passes, dished it to Dean Kousmanidis, who put in the insurance goal.
ESM, who entered the post-season with a 6-9-1 mark and no. 9 seed, visited no. 8 seed Homer in last Wednesday’s Class A opening round and, putting together one of its best all-around efforts of the season in a 2-0 shutout of the Trojans.
This was the same Homer team that had beaten the Spartans 4-0 back on Sept. 23, but a month later, everything had changed, mostly because ESM’s defense cut off anything the Trojans tried to establish, goalie Jason Sweredoski only having to make three saves.
Still, the Spartans needed some production on the offensive side – and got enough of it thanks to goals from Cole Belcher and Tyler Ott. Bajazit Boric added an assist.
Now ESM looked for an even bigger surprise when it visited top seed Indian River in Friday’s Class A quarterfinals, knowing an upset would mean a date with J-D in the semifinals.
But the Warriors turned back the Spartans 2-0, applying constant pressure on Sweredoski and forcing him to make 10 saves, which kept ESM close most of the way.
Still, IR broke through with Junior Malinoski’s goal just five minutes into the first half. Try as it could, ESM could not answer, and with 50 seconds left, as the Spartans brought players up, Malinoski caught them and sped downfield, feeding Kyle Smith, who beat Sweredoski to clinch it.
While J-D and ESM stayed in Class A, the Brothers, for the first time in years, were pulled up to Class AA, as a no. 6 seed, and would get through last Wednesday’s opening round at Alibrandi Stadium, shutting out no. 11 seed Rome Free Academy 2-0.
This was a nervous game, though, as the Black Knights, getting a great effort from goalie Rowe Wheeler (15 saves), went 0-0 to the second half. Only then did CBA break through, thanks to Monte Stroman, who earned one goal and assisted on the other, by Jake Dinger. Anthony Potenza assisted on Stroman’s scoring play.
But the level of competition picked up when CBA went to Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium to face no. 3 seed and defending champion Baldwinsville in Saturday’s AA quarterfinals, and it proved tense and close, with a controversial goal making the difference in the Brothers’ 1-0 defeat to the Bees.
Throughout the first half, B’ville’s back line broke up anything CBA tried to establish. At the same time, though, the Brothers were just as effective on the defensive side, protecting goalie Mike Smith, who only had to make one stressful stop in the 30th minute on an unattended free kick.
All of that changed with 16.1 seconds to play in the half. Working down the sideline, Erik Ferrari sent a cross to the middle. Amid a jumble of players in front of Smith, Evan Ingersoll came up with possession and flicked a shot home for the go-ahead goal.
CBA protested the goal, claiming that Ingersoll got his hand on the ball at some point in that sequence, but the goal stood.
Now with a slim lead to protect, the Bees ramped up its defense, again thwarting the Brothers before it could establish any sort of rhythm. The best chance came with 10:50 left, when a free kick by the Brothers was cleared from danger by Ingersoll before DePerro could get to it. B’ville hung on from there, ending CBA’s season.
