For the fifth time, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls soccer team’s season will end in Cortland with the Red Rams part of the state Class A final four.
Whether it ends in familiar disappointment, or a long-awaited state championship, remains to be seen, as J-D earned its latest attempt at the summit through surviving two Class A regional games last week.
By far, the tougher of them was the first one as the Red Rams used a pair of second-half goals to take down Section II champion Scotia-Glenville 2-0 last Tuesday night at Stillwater High School.
This game pitted an undefeated (19-0), state no. 2-ranked Tartans side against a J-D side whose primary advantage was its experience in games of this particular magnitude, while Scotia-Glenville’s players were new to all this.
Patience was needed on the Rams’ part, for the first half featured a relative stalemate. Again, J-D’s defense, led by Aryssa Lux, Grace Bridge and Ava Brazie, halted an opponent’s tendencies while the Rams’ attack probed and could not convert.
Much of the second half followed this pattern, too. J-D would keep drawing corner kicks and other set pieces, but the Tartans turned them back, adding to the stress level.
Then, with 15:38 left in regulation, Lainey Foti delivered again. Foti, who scored both goals in her team’s sectional final win over CBA on Oct. 27, took a corner kick and fired it into the net to put the Rams in front 1-0.
Barely four minutes later, the Rams’ pressure led to another corner kick, and with the ball loose in the middle, Hayley Quackenbush got on it and put home the insurance goal.
In order to get that return state final four trip, J-D had to win Saturday’s regional final against Section X representative Franklin Academy, from Malone.
That game was played at Liverpool High School Stadium, and despite the early (10 a.m.) start, the Rams handled the assignment with total ease and confidence, blasting Franklin by a 7-0 margin.
During the first half, no one could contain J-D’s Grace Dimkopoulos, who netted a three-goal hat trick. Yet even that 3-0 lead didn’t make the Rams content as, in the second half, it spread things around to the rest of the team..
Quackenbush scored for the second straight game and Brazie joined in, too, her goal part of an effort that included tallies from Sophia Foti and Grace Martin, plus an assist from Grace Thomas.
And now it’s back to state championship weekend for J-D, who on Saturday at 12:30 goes to Cortland High School to face Section I champion Pearl River in the state semifinals. The winner comes back to that same field at 10 a.m. Sunday to play for the state title against Spencerport (who beat J-D in the 2016 final) or Northport.
Meanwhile, in last Saturday’s Class AA boys soccer regional final, Fayetteville-Manlius saw its state title dreams dashed in a defeat to Shenendehowa in penalty kicks.
The Plainsmen beat the Hornets 1-0 in 2014 the last time these sides met in regional play. It wasn’t a shutout here, though, as the Hornets got the jump less than 15 minutes into the first half, Grant Olick-Sutphen placing a corner kick into the perfect spot that allowed Riley Burke to convert.
Shen got even, 1-1, by converting its own corner kick early in the second half as Ethan Behan headed it past F-M goalie Chris Szidat. And that tie would remain through a whole host of opportunities throughout the rest of regulation and 30 tense minutes of overtime, Szidat proving his worth by making 12 saves.
An entire season, and dreams of a long-elusive state title, came down to penalty kicks, but F-M converted on just one of its shots, while the Plainsmen made all four and moved on to the state final four at Middletown, leaving the Hornets proud of all it had accomplished, yet sad at seeing it all end.
