At some future point, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls soccer team’s streak of Section III titles will run out. Somewhere in the years ahead, East Syracuse Minoa will break its championship drought.
Neither of these things happened Friday night at SUNY-Cortland, when the Spartans, absent a title since 1997, attempted to end the Red Rams’ long reign, but were overwhelmed by a second-half blitz that gave J-D a 3-0 victory and an eighth consecutive sectional crown.
True, ESM owned the top seed, but the Rams held all of the other advantages, from its big-game experience to having taken an easier path to the finals, with routine wins over Homer and New Hartford as the Spartans needed four overtimes to subdue CBA and a goal late in regulation to edge Fulton.
However, when these two neighbors met in the regular season on Oct. 1, J-D only won by a 2-1 margin, and both of those goals came early as ESM’s defense made strong adjustments the rest of the way.
Perhaps remembering that effort, the Spartans again offered effective resistance in the first half of the title game. Olivia McEachron, Anna Markert, Claire Maring, Hailey Cwikla and the rest of the back line closed up the lanes through which J-D’s potent forwards could not navigate, while goalie Paige Boniewicz handled all of her chances.
The Rams’ best chance in the first half came on a free kick that Sophia Dimkopoulos, from 30 yards out, sent inches over the net. With the game still 0-0 at the break, the question was whether ESM could endure this way, only making the occasional attack while protecting the shutout.
J-D picked up its pressure, getting a series of corner kicks and runs. Eventually, all that work paid off in the 50th minute when Alex Epifani’s cross from the left was poked into the net by Angela Bussone.
With its own defense, led by Grace Bridge, Hayley Quackenbush and Ana Parks, turning back all of the Spartans’ chances, the Rams could stay patient with its 1-0 lead.
Midway through the second half, that margin doubled as Epifani produced a goal of her own, and just before the game ended, Alex Catanzarite found the net for her 30th goal of the season.
ESM finished with a superb mark of 16-3, and did so with just four seniors on its roster – Boniewicz, McEachron, Maring and Marissa Greiner. Having everyone else back for 2017 gives the Spartans a great opportunity to get that long-elusive sectional title
But it’s J-D that’s still going and trying to gain its first-ever state championship. Getting to the state final four on Nov. 12-13 will require two wins in the regional round, starting with Tuesday’s match against Section II champion Mohonasen at Fulton, which starts at 7 p.m.
Despite holding a 7-10-2 record, Mohonasen won a share of its first-ever sectional title when it tied Averill Park in overtime, then advanced through penalty kicks.
