Not so long ago, the East Syracuse Minoa and Jamesville-DeWitt girls soccer teams would have home-and-home clashes each fall, and while they usually fell the Red Rams’ way, the Spartans always got up for those battles.
In 2016, though, there’s just one regular-season clash, taking place this Saturday – and it comes full of irony since, at least for now, ESM is matching J-D and, in fact, has a better overall record.
The Spartans got to 8-1 last Monday night at Alibrandi Stadium, where it survived a long, tense battle with Christian Brothers Academy and saw a single scoring play prove enough to get past the Brothers 1-0.
This came just a week after the ESM boys, also undefeated at the time, topped CBA by that same 1-0 margin. But that took overtime, and that was at Spartan Stadium, while this battle took place a few miles down the road in DeWitt.
And this one didn’t require OT, either. Though the first half was a 0-0 stalemate where the Spartans’ multiple attacks kept getting turned away, in large part due to Brothers goalie Catherine Burns, who recorded 13 saves overall.
Just once did Burns get burned, pushed out of position at the near post while ESM’s Franchesca Polcaro picked up the loose ball and, fed by Mallory Ott, put in the go-ahead goal. An improving ESM defense did the rest, holding CBA to five shots, all stopped by the duo of Paige Boniewicz and Riley Abbot.
ESM was back home Thursday night to take on Mexico, and the fun continued for the Spartans as it roared to a 4-0 victory over the Tigers.
Greiner’s long-range goal in the 18th minute was the only tally of the first half, but ESM was far from content with a 1-0 advantage. Early in the second half, Greiner assisted when Lauren Ott made it 2-0, and it got to 3-0 when Mallory Ott fed it to Greiner for a second goal.
With nine minutes to play, Greiner’s night was capped when she scored once more to complete the hat trick. All told, the Spartans took 19 shots to Mexico’s one.
J-D, who had beaten CBA 8-0 when they had met Sept. 22, got to rest for a week before resuming action last Thursday afternoon, but the layoff did little to hurt the state Class A no. 4-ranked Red Rams as it earned a 5-1 victory over Cortland.
Easing its way to a 2-0 advantage by halftime, J-D doubled that margin on the Purple Tigers despite the hosts getting on the board with Logan Chase’s goal.
Alex Catanzarite went back to the forefront with a three-goal hat trick to match what Greiner did for ESM against Mexico, Elena Haarer contributed one goal and one assist, while Alex Epifani finished with another goal. Cortland goalie Marissa Gilmore earned 11 saves as J-D goalies Katie Cappelletti and Emma Silverstein combined for five saves.
Another six-day break would follow before the Rams met Homer on Wednesday, the last game before its big showdown with ESM.
