Not content with the Section III Class A championship it earned at the expense of Marcellus on Nov. 1 at SUNY-Cortland, the Jamesville-DeWitt boys soccer team wanted to find more success in the regional playoffs, too, and earn a trip to Middletown for the state final four.
It appeared that the key obstacle was Wednesday night’s regional opener against Section II champion South Glens Falls at Morrisville State College, and the Red Rams conquered it, utilizing strong midfield play and a well-timed late scoring burst to beat the Bulldogs 2-0.
From the outset, J-D’s defense was in top form. Not once in the first half did SGF manage a shot on goal as the back line of Josh Frank, Xander Ferlenda, Dylan Lichtenstein and Jacob Bazie offered a wall in front of goalie David Newman.
When that didn’t work, Tyler Lux, Dean Kousmanidis, Charlie Digristina and Tyler Gabriel cleared it out of the Rams’ end. Also, J-D was winning those 50-50 balls through the air, creating more possession time.
Early corner kicks were turned back by the Bulldogs’ defenders, and other shots went astray, too, leaving it a 0-0 game going into halftime.
Even though the Rams were dominating the flow of play, it knew that, in soccer, such a trend could be rendered moot by one successful attack by the opponent. So it kept on pressuring SGF goalie Ryan Hay in the second half, waiting for things to click.
Finally, in the 60th minute, Tyler Lichtenstein, whose long shot went just over the net minutes earlier, crossed to the middle, and Jake Socia, wide open, flung one past Ray to give J-D a 1-0 lead.
Instead of sitting on that slim margin, J-D kept on making runs. And it gained the clinching goal when Kousmanidis, taking advantage of an SGF turnover, sent a low, hard shot into the net before Ray could react.
Without a lot of stress, J-D protected that two-goal margin the rest of the way, and earned the right to play a bit closer to home, at Liverpool High School Stadium, against Section VII champion Peru in Saturday’s Class A regional final.
