From the way they got there to their recent track records, the East Syracuse Minoa and Jamesville-DeWitt girls soccer teams arrive at Friday night’s Section III Class A championship game at SUNY-Cortland in far different circumstances.
One side was looking to break a 19-year sectional title drought. The other was trying to claim a sectional crown for the eighth year in a row, a streak that started, ironically, in 2009 with a championship-game win over the same side it was trying to beat again.
Of course, it was the hungry Spartans attempting to end its long wait for a championship and the dynastic Red Rams standing in the way following wins in their respective semifinals on Tuesday night.
At Nottingham High School, ESM, the top seed, had, for the second round in a row, engaged in a tense contest against a familiar OHSL Freedom division opponent, but broke through late in regulation to defeat no. 4 seed Fulton 1-0.
By contrast, J-D, the no. 2 seed, had gone to Chittenango High School for its semifinal against no. 3 seed New Hartford and used a first-half blitz to gain control in a 3-0 win over that other group of Spartans.
ESM had just met Fulton two weeks earlier and had claimed a 2-0 decision. That recent familiarity helped the Red Raiders meet the Spartans’ challenges throughout a scoreless first half and engage in numerous counter-attacks that raised plenty of alarms.
Deep into the second half, it remained 0-0, though ESM, with the wind at its back, spent long periods of time in Fulton’s end and earned a long string of corner kicks it could not convert. Spartans fans wondered if the drama of the quarterfinal (a four-OT epic win over CBA) would repeat itself.
The Red Raiders almost broke through with 13:40 left, a shot flying just wide as part of its longest sustained run of the evening, which left Fulton vulnerable to a quick push the other way.
It turned out that a transition play made the difference. From the left side near midfield, Franchesca Polcaro’s long pass sprung Marissa Greiner on a long run that didn’t stop until she had slid a low shot past Red Raiders goalie Maddie Long into the net with 9:30 left in regulation.
Down a goal, Fulton made one more big push, forcing Boniewicz to make her toughest save with 3:10 to play. Boniewicz finished with six saves, to nine for Lang.
J-D required none of these late machinations against a New Hartford team it beat 3-1 on Aug. 29 and had also defeated 12 months ago in the 2015 sectional Class A final.
All of the Rams’ goals against New Hartford came in the first half. Twice, senior Alex Catanzarite found the net, giving her 28 goals for the season, while Tonia Kousmanidis contributed the other goal. Alex Epifani was credited with an assist.
Staked to that three-goal advantage, J-D turned to its defense, which never let New Hartford get many close-up opportunities. In fact, goalie Katie Cappelletti only had to make one save.
And this leads to the final between J-D and ESM, who carry nearly equal records – the Rams 16-2, the Spartans 15-2-1. In their lone regular-season meeting on Oct. 8, J-D scored twice early and then held on for a 2-1 victory. The stakes on Friday night at 6:30 at SUNY-Cortland are much higher.
