In the opening days of September, the Jamesville-DeWitt and Christian Brothers Academy girls soccer teams both found themselves in need of some boost, and got it with hard-earned wins over quality opponents.
In CBA’s case, that meant hosting West Genesee, the same side that beat J-D 1-0 in overtime on Aug. 30, two days later at Alibrandi Stadium and squeezing out a victory over the Wildcats by that exact same margin.
Much like the J-D game, there was a scoreless first half, and the Wildcats’ defense was on the brink of taking it to another overtime period until Meghan McKeen, with 10 minutes left, scored off a feed from Katy Stanard. That proved enough, WG unable to put anything of its 13 shots past CBA goalie Catherine Burns.
J-D moved on to face Fayetteville-Manlius on Sept. 2, part of a doubleheader with the boys teams from those same schools, except here it was the Red Rams coming out on top over the Hornets in yet another 1-0 match.
The strike came early as J-D’s Sydney Baker scored off a feed from Hayley Quackenbush. Though F-M’s Sabrina Suriani stopped everything else from there and finished with nine saves, the Hornets could not pull even despite its fair share of chances, all six shots stopped by Katie Cappelletti.
Of even greater importance to J-D was the way it handled East Syracuse Minoa last Tuesday afternoon. The Rams’ attack roared to life in a six-minute stretch late in the first half, and everything else worked, too, in a 3-0 shutout of the Spartans.
Aside from some free runs at the start of each half, the Spartans never made the Rams’ defense worry, and all of the shots it took were long-range and low-percentage.
Meanwhile, J-D showed nice patience and, near the midway point of the first half, took a 1-0 lead when Lainey Foti’s cross from the left corner was pushed in by Grace Martin. Foti returned six minutes later to again assist on a goal, going to the same spot on the left and making a similar pass that Grace Dimkopoulos fired home.
Up 2-0 at halftime, the Rams extended that lead when, off a throw-in, the ball bounced around until Dimkopoulos converted again. ESM battled to the finish line, but saw goalie Alana Day, who made eight saves, take a close-up shot off her face in the final minutes, forcing her to leave the game.
F-M played that night at Baldwinsville, and kept it close for a long while before taking a 3-1 defeat to the Bees. Rachel Dobricki’s first-half goal helped erase an early 1-0 deficit, However, Hannah Mimas scored in the second half to break the tie and put the Bees ahead for good, one of two goals Mimas earned.
On a busy Thursday, J-D and ESM both won 1-0 decisions on the road – the Red Rams over Central Square, the Spartans in a rematch with Auburn – and CBA earned another big win of its own, edging Marcellus 2-1 at Alibrandi Stadium.
The Marcellus-CBA game had extra intrigue because the Brothers’ second-year head coach, Dan Scott, once served as an assistant under long-time Mustangs coach Laurie Updike. Knowing the Marcellus system would help CBA streak to a 2-0 halftime lead.
Grace Hulslander converted in the 11th minute and Amanda Winn scored less than two minutes before halftime, in each instance getting open up front and poking it past Grace Coon, who still made five saves.
Down 2-0, Marcellus climbed back in it as Taylor Reich scored early in the second half, and Marcellus had ample opportunities to tie it, especially in the final minutes, only to get turned away as Burns made big stops down the stretch while under pressure, finishing with 11 saves overall.
Meanwhile, J-D got a scare at Central Square, held scoreless in the first half as Redhawks goalie Hayley Bell was on her way to 11 saves. But the Rams kept probing, and Foti broke through with the game’s lone goal to give her side a third straight win.
As for ESM, it hit the post four times in the first half during a continual assault on Auburn goalie Emma Bachman. And though Bachman made 15 saves, the Spartans did break through with Mallory Ott’s second-half goal, assisted by Lauren Ott, and it proved enough.
F-M and ESM both had more 1-0 games on Friday, but the Hornets beat Whitesboro as Rachel Dobricki’s goal, assisted by Hannah Knych, held up. ESM wasn’t as fortunate in a 1-0 defeat to Rome Free Academy.
CBA’s busy week concluded with a 2-1, overtime defeat to Cazenovia on Saturday, where it took the lead on Hulslander’s first-half goal. But that was all the Cazenovia defense would allow as Hannah Matteson earned 12 saves.
Sparked by that defense, the Lakers waited for its own opportunity, and got it when, on a free kick just outside the 18-yard box early in the second half, Jamie Joseph found the net, tying it 1-1, where it stayed for the rest of regulation.
In girls soccer, they play two full 10-minute overtime periods. The first OT went scoreless, but with 6:18 left in the second extra period Brenna Hughes, off a feed from Joseph, broke through CBA’s defenses, went in alone and blasted a shot past Burns, which proved the game-winner.
Just before Labor Day weekend, Manlius-Pebble Hill and Bishop Grimes squared off against each other, and the neighbors provided quite a game, too, with the Trojans prevailing 2-1 over the Cobras.
Grimes got a first-half goal from Rhonee Shea Pal, assisted by Julia Gnade. Still, MPH forged a 1-1 halftime tie and went in front late, overcoming 10 saves from Cobras goalie Caroline Wilkinson.
In its next game last Wednesday, Grimes played LaFayette to a 2-2 draw. Gnade scored one of the Cobras’ goals and assisted on the other, by Katherine Murphy. Wilkinson had 10 saves as the Lancers had Charlotte Ryan net one goal and assist on Olivia Prince’s tally.
MPH would play Thursday and edged Onondaga 3-2, with Bianca Melendez-Martineau netting two of the Trojans’ goals and Taylor Germaine also finding the net, which helped to overcome a pair of tallies from the Tigers’ Alyssa Myer.
Grimes would edge Solvay 1-0 on Friday afternoon, the lone goal coming in the second half from Gnade as the Cobras’ defense was kept busy, yet prevented the Bearcats from pulling even, Wilkinson recording 10 saves.
