In the minds of the Jamesville-DeWitt girls soccer team, one scare from Christian Brothers Academy in the Section III Class A playoffs was one too many.
Again facing the Brothers in Thursday’s sectional Class A quarterfinals, the undefeated, top-seeded Red Rams used a sudden outburst early in the second half to take charge, eventually pulling away to beat the Brothers 5-0.
These teams had met in this same quarterfinal round in 2014, and it took 80 minutes of regulation, 20 minutes of overtime and penalty kicks for J-D to survive on the way to a sixth consecutive sectional title.
Now, sporting a 17-0 record and a 19-game sectional playoff unbeaten streak, the Rams were confronting CBA again, but on its new artificial turf field, not the natural grass surface they played on eight days earlier in a 6-0 J-D romp.
From the outset, the Brothers concentrated its efforts on defense, stacking players on its half of the field to take running space away from Alex Catanzarite and the rest of J-D’s swift forwards.
For a half, that plan worked. The Rams only got a handful of good opportunities, including a shot right before the break that deflected off goalie Catherine Burns’ hands and hit the crossbar.
They remained 0-0 going into the second half, with J-D partisans wondering if it was bound for another stressful finish with CBA.
Then, in a span of less than 20 seconds, all of the Rams’ stress went away.
Catanzarite finally found space in the 50th minute, running down the right side, rather than the left, and crossing with her right foot, rather than her left. Paige Sherling grabbed that pass and fired it off Burns’ hands past the goal line.
Before the Brothers could even begin to regroup, J-D quickly grabbed possession of the ensuing kickoff, and this time it was Sherling making the loss pass to Catanzarite, back on her left side, and she drilled a left-footed shot home to make it 2-0.
Not content with one outburst, the Rams had another when, in a 90-second span late in the half, Alex Fontana scored on a penalty kick and Sherling netted her second goal of the afternoon. Fontana returned to cap off the win by scoring with 2:40 to play.
Despite its top seed and no. 2 state Class A ranking, J-D, facing a 16-team sectional bracket, had to go through the opening round, which it did last Tuesday afternoon, moving to the school’s new artificial turf field and putting away no. 16 seed Carthage by a familiar 6-0 margin.
Though it normally plays home games on grass, J-D moved to the Field Turf, perhaps because it knew that, in later rounds, it would play on similar surfaces anyway. The adjustment period didn’t take too long, though, as the Rams led the Comets 2-0 by halftime and pulled away in the late going.
Sherling scored three times for a hat trick, often fed by Catanzarite, who got three assists. Fontana, Lainey Foti and Anastasia Parks earned the other goals, J-D finishing with 26 shots to Carthage’s one.
CBA had a far different experience in its opening-round game against no. 9 seed Whitesboro later that night at Alibrandi Stadium, mostly leaning on its defense, and having to go all 80 minutes, to earn a 1-0 victory over the Warriors.
They were still scoreless when, midway through the first half, Grace Hulslander drilled a 30-yard shot past Whitesboro goalie Jordan Upson. For the rest of the game, Upson kept the Brothers out of the net, finishing with seven saves.
That left it up to CBA’s defense to preserve that slim margin. Led by Claire Pierret, Kate Derrenbacker, Natalie Nardella and Rosalee Winderl, the Brothers did contain Whitesboro, and Catherine Burns stopped all six shots she faced.
J-D ended CBA’s season a round later, setting up a sectional semifinal next Thursday at Chittenango High School where the Red Rams, going for 19 in a row, meets no. 5 seed Homer. The winner goes to the sectional final next Friday at 6 p.m. at SUNY-Cortland against no. 2 seed New Hartford or no. 6 seed Chittenango.
East Syracuse Minoa, with the no. 13 seed in Class A, wanted to join J-D and CBA in the quarterfinal round, but could not do so as a poor second half proved costly in a 3-1 defeat to no. 4 seed Watertown.
Marissa Greiner’s first-half goal, assisted by Mallory Ott, put the Spartans in front of the Cyclones, and strong defense, plus solid work in goal by Jenna Cerlanek (who finished with nine saves) preserved that slim 1-0 margin until halftime.
But then Watertown struck twice early in the second half to move out in front, and ESM never recovered, the Cyclones tacking on an insurance goal late in the match. Jill Girardi, Kira Kolb and Zoey Shank scored, and Kayla Meyer got a second-half shutout on her way to seven saves. The Spartans’ season finished with a 6-11 mark.
