When the Section III boys soccer playoff pairings were announced, East Syracuse Minoa was the no. 2 seed in Class A and Jamesville-DeWitt the no. 7 seed, meaning they will face each other in Thursday night’s sectional quarterfinal.
Christian Brothers Academy, as the no. 6 seed in Class AA, would face no. 3 seed and defending champion Liverpool on Thursday night, while in Class D Manlius-Pebble Hill earned the no. 3 seed and a first-round match with no. 14 seed Remsen as, in Class C, no. 12 seed Bishop Grimes would visit no. 5 seed Beaver River in Wednesday’s opening round.
All of them were busy in the last week of the regular season.
A late-season surge that included a big 2-1 win over Bishop Ludden on Oct. 6 shot MPH up to no. 5 in the state Class D rankings.
Not content with any of this, the Trojans went out last Monday and, in a big game at Fabius-Pompey, rolled to a 3-0 victory over the Falcons. Leading by halftime, MPH got away late as Simon Hoke netted two goals and Jared Amankwah earned the other.
The Trojans’ defense got its fourth shutout in five games and mostly limiting F-P’s chances as goalie Stew Falso only had to make six saves. It was MPH’s ninth shutout overall,
Two days later, MPH took on Tully, whom it beat by a 5-2 margin on Sept. 18. Here, though, things completely turned around as the Black Knights romped through the rain and stunned the Trojans 4-1.
Controlling matters from the outset, Tully led 2-0 by halftime, Ian Byrne the spark as his three assists helped a well-balanced Black Knights attack that got goals from Jonah Shay, Sean King, Sam Stoogenke and Evan Rapp. All that MPH could do was get a second-half goal from Josh Hutko, assisted by Hoke.
The Trojans took out its frustrations from the Tully game on Onondaga Friday afternoon, MPH bashing the Tigers 6-0 as Hoke scored twice and tacked on a pair of assists, with goals also going to Hutko, Dan Mezzalingua, Gopal Neopaney and Theo Eckert-Budis. Grant Lewis and Carl Beach joined Mezzalingua in the assist column.
ESM would clash with Fulton Thursday night with the Salt City Athletic Conference Empire division regular-season title at stake, but only after it made sure it got past Oswego last Tuesday night – which the Spartans did, shutting out the Buccaneers 4-0.
It was Safet Suljic putting ESM on the board, with Kyle Scalzo assisting on that goal, and also assisting on Ty Mulcahy’s goal that made it 2-0. Then Scalzo put in the other two goals himself, pushing his season total to 20 as Jack Callahan assisted one of them.
This led to the showdown with Fulton, which went as advertised, a tense and exciting struggle where the Spartans’ inability to get on the board early proved costly in a 2-1 loss to the Red Raiders, who avenged ESM’s 2-0 win in their first encounter Sept. 25.
Sound defense by Fulton kept the Spartans in check during the first half, during which time the Red Raiders went up 1-0 on Anthony Salerno’s goal. Scalzo’s 21st goal, assisted by Suljic, got answered by Salerno in the second half, and the visitors could not get it to overtime, held to just four shots all night.
J-D took its second straight defeat against PSLA-Fowler last Tuesday, a 1-0 overtime decision where, through 80 minutes of regulation, the Red Rams’ defense did a superb job keeping the Falcons out of the net.
Alex Carbacio and David Tyler combined for 14 saves, but J-D could get none of its eight shots past PSLA-Fowler goalie Gabieral Venance as, in the first OT period, Ararso Mohammed won it for the Falcons, getting the goal assisted by Mupenzi Irakiza.
A day later, the Red Rams played in another 1-0 game, but beat Cortland as a first-half goal by Marcus Johnson, assisted by Jalique Huntley, held up the rest of the way. None of the Purple Tigers’ seven shots got past Carbacio or Tyler.
Finally assured of a sectional playoff shot, J-D played PSLA-Fowler again on Saturday and, once again, got shut out, only here it was a 2-0 decision with Ridwan Sirad scoring once and assisting on Irakiza’s goal, overcoming Carbacio and Tyler making eight total saves.
Facing yet another close contest last Tuesday, CBA lost, 2-1, to Homer, all of the action coming in the second half. Jon Duteau’s goal put the Brothers on the board, but the Trojans’ Marcus Karam twice put shots past Matt Buck, and Homer goalie Ethan Lunas made nine saves to make that slim lead hold up.
Grimes played Bishop Ludden last Monday and lost, 4-0, to the Gaelic Knights, who rebounded from the MPH loss and defended its no. 14 state ranking by scoring twice in each half to overcome Matt Tarby’s 12 saves. Connor Catalano (two goals, one assist) and Liam Casey (two assists) led the Ludden attack.
On Saturday, the Cobras’ regular season ended at LaFayette, where Grimes sought its 10th win of the season – but didn’t get it, falling 7-5 to the Lancers.
Deng Mawien scored twice for Grimes, with Paul Kim, Robert Mannion and Connor Alexander getting one goal apiece. David Cifonelli had two assists and Andrea Pallotta a single assist as Reid Jackowski (three goals) and Marius Giebelen (two goals, two assists) led LaFayette.
