High tension and immense drama has followed the East Syracuse Minoa boys soccer team through the late stretches of the regular season and deep into the Section III Class A playoffs.
So it only figured that the top-seeded Spartans’ 2-1 win over no. 4 seed Jamesville-DeWitt in Wednesday night’s sectional Class A semifinal at Christian Brothers Academy’s Alibrandi Stadium involved a late comeback and work deep into overtime.
David Neff would save ESM’s season, first by converting on a fast break with 10:34 left in regulation, and then converting on a long shot 1:30 into the second extra period.
And it sets up a Spartan clash for the sectional title Tuesday night at Chittenango High School, with top-seeded ESM meeting no. 3 seed New Hartford, who took out Watertown 2-0 in the other semifinal Wednesday on J-D’s turf.
Everything for ESM in these sectional playoffs has proven a struggle. It took penalty kicks to get past Oswego in the Oct. 20 quarterfinal round. And in the next round it had to meet a J-D side, holding the no. 4 seed, that beat the Spartans 1-0 on Oct. 1.
For much of the early going, both sides struggled to find any sort of scoring chances. Then the pace picked up late in the first half, leading to J-D’s lone scoring play.
It came on a corner kick in the 31st minute. Instead of lobbing it up toward a crowd of players in the middle, Liam O’Malley used his left foot to bend a perfect shot into the top left corner of the net, over the reach of Spartans goalie Ryan Cacace.
Trailing 1-0 at the break, ESM engineered an all-out attack at the start of the second half, generating numerous chances that the Red Rams’ defense had to turn away. But J-D wasn’t passive, also getting its share of opportunities midway through the half, but unable to add to its thin margin.
One attack was all the Spartans needed to get even. Kyle Scalzo made a deep run up the middle, and J-D goalie Tom Bonaccio ran out to stop it – but in doing so, he got out of position and Scalzo, regaining possession, passed it to Neff, whose hard shot crashed into the left side of the net.
Regulation ended 1-1, and so did the first of two 15-minute golden-goal overtime periods, despite plenty of runs on both sides, ESM partisans wondering if its fate would get determined by penalty kicks again.
Neff made sure that didn’t happen. From 35 yards out early in the second OT, Neff lobbed a hard shot that Bonaccio at first ran out to catch, but the ball stayed in the air and, by the time Bonaccio realized the danger, it had fit inside the top right corner, ending J-D’s season.
