Even with all that it has accomplished in the last decade, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls soccer team would consider an undefeated, untied regular season particularly special.
The state Class A no. 2-ranked Red Rams got closer to that mark as October got underway, ripping past Auburn 6-0 last Wednesday afternoon for its 12th win in a row.
What’s more, this game featured twin hat tricks from Grace Dimkopoulos and Megan Baker as they each found the net three times, helping J-D go up 4-0 by halftime and then pull further away.
All sorts of players helped Dimkopoulos and Baker out as Grace Thomas picked up two assists, with Sydney Baker, Sydney Balotin, Tonia Kousmanidis and Hayley Quackenbush getting one assist apiece.
Fulton fell just as easily on Friday as J-D went there and smashed the Red Raiders 5-0, with Dimkopoulos at the forefront as she put together two goals and one assist.
Matching that point total, Megan Baker had a goal and two assists. Balotin also earned a pair of assists as Kousmanidis and Mona Osman also put in goals.
Once at 7-0 and no. 2 in the state rankings, Bishop Grimes had undergone a late-September slump that included four consecutive defeats, two of them to LaFayette.
Only at the start of October did the Cobras start to win again, pulling out a 1-0 decision over Pulaski last Monday as Katherine Murphy’s first-half goal held up. None of the Blue Devils’ six shots got past Caroline Wilkinson.
Hosting Cato-Meridian two days later, Grimes again had a shutout, this one 2-0 as Wilkinson stopped all 10 shots she faced. Julia Gnade’s pair of goals, one in each half, was enough as Murphy and Peri Dykes picked up assists.
Those wins were nice, but Grimes, in particular, wanted to beat Bishop Ludden on Saturday, especially since some of the Cobras’ players take part with Ludden on a combined girls lacrosse team in the spring.
Yet it was the Gaelic Knights prevailing on this occasion, edging Grimes 1-0. Peri Dykes, taking her turn in goal, recorded seven saves. Dykes only allowed a second-half goal by Abbey Ryan that held up as Ludden goalie Olivia Boyea stopped all six shots she faced.
East Syracuse Minoa was back in action on Friday, hosting Syracuse City, and earning a 3-0 victory as it took 24 shots overall and kept the ball in Syracuse’s end most of the way.
Franchesca Polcaro and Gianna Coccagnia both found the net in the first half, with Polcaro returning in the second half to add a second goal. Jessica Griffith got credit for an assist as the Spartans improved to 6-7 and clinched a post-season berth.
Manlius-Pebble Hill had defeated Grimes 1-0 on Sept. 24. Exactly one week later, the Trojans found itself on the wrong end of a lopsided decision as it lost, 6-1, to Tully.
Even with Claudia Cook’s first-half goal, assisted by Maddie Mafrici, the Trojans found itself trailing 3-1 at halftime. Tully pulled further away as six different Black Knights netted goals, with Rachel Biggs and Grace Swan each getting one goal and one assist.
Now sitting below the .500 mark (5-6), MPH faced an Onondaga side coached by Lisa Eipp, who led Westhill to a share of the 2017 state Class B championship. The Trojans would play the Tigers to a 1-1 draw.
