Three of the area’s boys soccer teams found themselves battling just to get into the Section III playoffs.
And two of them, Bishop Grimes and Manlius-Pebble Hill, squared off last Wednesday afternoon in a tense, exciting contest that stayed in doubt until overtime, where again the Cobras proved clutch in a 1-0 victory over the Trojans.
All through the 80 minutes of regulation, both sides whiffed on their chances. MPH had more of them, but couldn’t get a shot past Grimes goalkeeper Michael Delvecchio, who stopped all 11 shots he faced.
Though not as busy, Trojans netminder Zach Montas had six saves – all of which didn’t matter when, in the first OT period, Noah Fiacchi took advantage of a quick restart and, driving in alone, beat Montas for the game-winner. It marked five wins in a row for Grimes, the last of them OT decisions, having beaten Jordan-Elbridge on Mark Shattuck’s OT tally on Oct. 10).
Now Grimes had climbed to the .500 mark, and hoped to get above it facing Bishop Ludden on Friday night at Onondaga Community College’s turf field. It proved a close, tense affair, but the Cobras’ win streak came to an end with a 1-0 loss to the Gaelic Knights.
Cold, wet and windy conditions, along with the artificial surface at OCC, created plenty of challenges. Lucas Scutari scored for Ludden in the first half, assisted by Brendan Downey, and the Gaelic Knights protected that slim margin the rest of the way by holding Grimes to five shots, all stopped by Peter Lockwood. Delvecchio kept his team in it by recording 13 saves.
As for MPH, it fell to 4-9-1 with that loss to Grimes, and needed to win Friday against Tyburn Academy – but instead had to settle for a 0-0 draw despite dominating the game from start to finish. The Trojans took 21 shots, but Tyburn goalie Dominic Panos stopped all of them to keep the game scoreless.
East Syracuse Minoa began this last week of the regular season with a 6-8 record. One more would clinch a sectional spot – and the Spartans earned it in a big way on Columbus Day, ripping the Oneida Indians 7-1.
During a decisive first half, ESM registered five unanswered goals. By game’s end, seven different Spartans – Cody Barbuto, Abdullah Mujcic, Brad Hartung, R.J. Bennink, James Kenyon, Kyle Scalzo and Alex Kubecka – had found the net, with Andrew Steigerwald and Noah Hodge joining Mujcic in the assist column.
Just 24 hours later, ESM visited Oswego, and it ended in a 1-1 draw. Hartung’s first-half goal was all that the Spartans could muster, and that 1-0 lead did not hold up as Hunter Mazuroski put in the equalizer for the Buccaneers in the second half, and neither team could convert in 20 minutes of overtime.
In a strange twist, the Spartans have to face Oswego again – in Tuesday’s opening round of the Section III Class A playoffs. As the no. 6 seed, the Spartans needs to knock off the no. 11 seed Bucs to reach a quarterfinal against Fulton or Indian River later this week.
Bishop Grimes has the no. 9 seed in the Class C sectional tournament and will have to get past no. 8 seed Tully in Tuesday’s first round, with the prize a quarterfinal match against top seed Thousand Islands up in Clayton.
