At last, someone noticed the torrid start of the East Syracuse Minoa boys soccer team – and that included opponents like Jamesville-DeWitt, who used last Saturday’s big 1-0 victory over the Spartans to continue its mid-season turnaround.

When the latest bit of state Class A rankings came out, the Spartans, with its 7-0 start, sat at no. 9, but it knew that any sort of accolades depended on maintaining the high quality of play it had shown through the first half of the regular season.

At the end of a busy week, ESM met J-D on Saturday night, a game that served as a benefit for Coaches vs. Cancer and the American Cancer Society. It was the seventh annual event hosted by J-D after junior varsity head coach Paul Krause founded it in 2009 in honor of his sister, Sally Lock.

And it proved a big win for the Red Rams, who got an early goal from Liam O’Malley, assisted by Tyler Gabriel, and then spent the rest of the game applying pressure while also turning back all of ESM’s chances. Tom Bonaccio, aided by a terrific Rams defense, stopped all seven shots he faced. Spartans goalie Ryan Cacace had 11 saves.

By the time they got to J-D, the Spartans were no longer undefeated. Mexico had broken ESM’s nine-game win streak on Thursday, the Tigers prevailing 1-0 in double overtime as, in the second extra period, William Ruby, off a feed from Dustin Barck, headed a shot past Ryan Cacace for the game’s lone goal.

True, ESM was in the midst of a stretch of four games in six days. But Mexico had a 3-6 record, and as expected the Spartans would control the ball most of the time against the Tigers, ultimately taking 20 shots and earning eight corner kicks.

None of them got converted, though. Each of ESM’s 10 shots on the net got scooped up by Mexico goalie Brandon Dutcher, who with defenders Ben Pelow, Wyatt Jensen, Josh Yerden and Brendon Pullen kept the game 0-0 long enough for Ruby to win it.

Before all this, ESM got a bit of a test from visiting Auburn last Monday night, but well-timed goals before halftime put the Spartans in control, and it didn’t let up until it had another shutout in the books as it beat the Maroons 2-0.

The game was not yet 13 minutes old when James Kenyon, off a feed from Jason Sweredoski, put one past Auburn goalie Mike Morrissey. Not content with the 1-0 edge, the Spartans doubled it less than three minutes before intermission thanks to David Neff’s pass that set up Jordan Hodge for the insurance goal.

To his credit, Morrissey stopped everything else and earned 14 saves overall. The problem for Auburn was that it didn’t pressure ESM enough, the defense limiting the Maroons to a single shot all night.

With eight straight wins in the books (three of them shutouts), ESM faced Rome Free Academy a night later and, again, clamped down on defense while getting just enough production to win its second 2-0 decision in a 24-hour span.

The Black Knights were determined not to let the Spartans’ forwards get too many close looks, but that backfired when Kyle Scalzo ripped a shot from long range that found the net in the first half to put the hosts in front.

Michael Haag, RFA’s goalie, made 12 saves, and his work kept the game 1-0 until, with 10 minutes left, Scalzo returned, this time feeding Luke Garlick for the Spartans’ second goal. ESM’s defense came up big again, Cacace stopping all eight shots he faced.

Two days before the ESM defeat at Mexico, J-D had beaten the Tigers 2-0, controlling most of the game much like the Spartans would, but at least putting a couple of shots past Dutcher, who had 12 saves.  Jake Socia notched one goal and assisted on the other, by Ben Picone, with Nick Lorenzo adding an assist.

And while the ESM win streak ended at Mexico, J-D remained hot with a 5-0 shutout of Cortland that included a quartet of first-half goals. Taking 28 shots overall, the Rams saw Socia find the net twice, with single tallies going to Picone, Tyler Gabriel and Jacob Brazie. Liam O’Malley got two assists as Brazie and Jack Austin earned single assists.

This splendid week of work left J-D at 6-7 overall, but its 5-3 league record all but guaranteed a playoff berth even as the Rams prepared for games this week against Fowler and Marcellus.