A memorable season for the East Syracuse Minoa boys soccer team ended with the Spartans seizing the Section III Class A championship.
The only problem was that it wasn’t ESM’s Spartans holding the sectional banner, but rather it was New Hartford’s Spartans doing so, the no. 2 seed prevailing 2-0 in Tuesday night’s Spartan clash at Chittenango High School that doubled as the sectional Class A final.
Going into the game, ESM, the top seed, may have felt destined to win it all. Having put itself in trouble throughout the sectional tournament, the Spartans kept getting out of it, first by surviving penalty kicks with Oswego in the quarterfinals, and then by going to two overtimes to get past Jamesville-DeWitt in the semifinals at CBA’s Alibrandi Stadium.
Now the last task was at hand – trying to claim Spartan bragging rights, plus a first sectional title in five years, against a New Hartford side attempting to break its own seven-year sectional championship drought.
Fittingly, the defenses would dictate the outcome. ESM had based most of its 2016 success on the way it had kept opponents off the board. Yet New Hartford had also blanked both of its playoff opponents (Whiteboro and Watertown) after Chris Ojuro took over full-time in goal due to an injury by Mike Nassif.
So it likely surprised no one that the two Spartan sides worked through a 0-0 first half in the title game. Any time it attacked, ESM found itself trying to weave through four New Hartford defenders lined up in front of Ojuro, and unable to do so.
Yet in the 29th minute ESM finally put together the passes it needed to spring David Neff open right in front of Ojuro, and Neff hit it hard –but Ojuro dove and stopped it, keeping New Hartford on level terms.
Early in the second half, they were still 0-0, but New Hartford increased its pressure and, in the 48th minute, broke through thanks to a goal from senior Randolph Butler, who ignored the fact that Ryan Cacace had stopped him point-blank a minute earlier and slid one past Cacace.
Try as it could, ESM could not offer an answer, and with 11:21 left, Butler returned to slam a shot off the post – but before Cacace could recover, sophomore Dan Rayhill sprinted toward the ball and fit it into the net.
While New Hartford advanced to face the Section II/X champion Saturday in the regional final at Herkimer Community College, ESM had to face the end of a 13-4-2 season that exceeded everyone’s expectations, from head coach Mark Carr to the players.
A strong group of seniors now departs, including Neff, Ado Mujcic, Samir Buljubasic, James Kenyon, Jesse Hodge, Jordan Hodge and Jason Sweredoski, with the likes of Cacace, Tyler Hodge, Kyle Scalzo and Safet Suljic among the key players coming back in 2017.
