Neighbors got together on Saturday when the Jamesville-DeWitt and Fayetteville-Manlius girls soccer teams collided on the Hornets’ home turf.
And what was expected to be a high-flying, fast-paced contest turned, instead, into a defensive stalemate only broken by Sydney Tanner that helped the Red Rams edge the Hornets 1-0.
When F-M opened on Aug. 31 at Victor (Section V), it endured a back-and-forth battle and got a tough 3-2 victory over the Blue Devils.
Ultimately, the Hornets went in front in the late stages after a 1-1 halftime tie, pushed there by Rachel Dobricki’s pair of goals as Hannah Knych earned the other goal.
Katy Krueger and Madison Bowyer had one assist apiece, and F-M used two different goalkeepers, Haley Ingram and Sabrina Suriani combining to make nine saves.
Back home last Tuesday, F-M broke out in a big way to rout Cazenovia 8-1, getting five unanswered goals in the first half and not letting up too much in the latter stages, even with the match in hand.
Knych, in particular, had a great night, setting a career mark by scoring four times and adding an assist. Ashley Carter got a goal and two assists, while Chloe Hodge had one goal and one assist. Dobricki and Lauren Farella scored, too, as Ingram, Rachel Palladino, Elena Paolini and Amelia Haight got one assist apiece.
Now the Hornets went after J-D, and for much of the game its defense was quite impressive. Haight, Paolini, Laura Bonomo and Katy Krueger paced a back line that mostly limited the Red Rams to long-distance opportunities and clamped down on corner kicks, too.
However, J-D was just as stingy, as Katie Cappelletti stopped all six shots she faced and the defense, led by Ava Brazie, Grace Bridge and Arysa Lux, frustrated the Hornets.
They were still 0-0 when, with 11 minutes left in regulation, the Rams earned a free kick on the right side. Hayley Quackenbush fed it to the middle and Tanner delivered a hard header to the top right corner than Suriani had no chance to stop
Earlier in the week, J-D gave up its first goal of the season to Central Square last Tuesday but leaned on Grace Dimkopoulos to push past the Redhawks 3-1.
Emma Herrmann’s goal matched one by Dimkopoulos and had Central Square even, 1-1, going into halftime. Keeping calm, the Red Rams kept attacking and Dimkopoulos converted twice more for the hat trick, with Grace Bridge adding an assist.
It was a lot easier for J-D in Thursday’s 10-2 romp over Auburn, a rare instance of a team reaching double digits thanks to the Rams having seven different goal-scorers.
Dimkopoulos and Grace Thomas both had two goals and one assist, with Tonia Kousmanidis also scoring twice. Tanner, Quackenbush, Brazie and Emma Silverstein had one goal apiece as Grace Martin, Mona Osman and Lindsey Hildreth picked up assists.
While all this was going on, East Syracuse Minoa went to Auburn last Tuesday and lost, 2-1, to the Maroons, a result made more painful by the fact that Natalie Peterson’s goal, assisted by Sophia Orlando, had the Spartans up 1-0 at halftime.
Auburn turned it around with two counter-attack goals despite having to defend most of the night. Of ESM’s 15 shots, 14 were scooped up by Maroons goalie Bryn Whitman.
But the Spartans would recover Friday with a 1-0 win over Fulton, the game scoreless until Franchesca Polcaro, off a feed from Peterson, put in the game’s lone goal in the second half, overcoming a 17-save effort by Red Raiders goalie Aiyana Congdon.