On Monday night at Jamesville-DeWitt High School’s turf field, the Cazenovia boys soccer team plays Westhill with the Section III Class B championship at stake.
Yes, that sounds familiar, because that’s exactly what took place in 2016 and 2017, with the Lakers aiming to end a long title drought and the Warriors, owners of 11 sectional crowns, denying it to them.
This latest chapter resulted from a pair of semifinals played Wednesday night at J-D. in the first of those games, Cazenovia (14-5) halted the unlikely run of no. 9 seed Camden with a big second half that produced a 3-1 victory over the Blue Devils.
Back on Oct. 19, Camden had upended top seed Watertown IHC 1-0, a result that energized the no. 5 seed Lakers, who proceeded to knock out no. 4 seed Clinton 4-1 a night later.
Now, in the semifinal round, Cazenovia wondered, for quite a while, if it would meet the same fate as IHC did at the expense of the Blue Devils, who kept them off the board throughout the first half despite the Lakers getting most of the chances.
But Cazenovia’s patience and persistence got rewarded, in large measure due to the contributions of Joe Spires, who overcame Camden’s attempts to contain him.
Early in the second half, Spires got behind the defenders and had Blue Devils goalie Josh Leos one-on-one, only to get stopped. Two minutes later, though, Spires was in position again, and this time converted, finding the right side of the net.
Much the same thing happened within five minutes, again Spires working around Camden’s back line and again getting the goal, his 24th of the season, to make it 2-0.
Not content with that, Spires assisted on Brian Pezzi’s goal in the 62nd minute, an insurance tally made more valuable when Camden’s Zach Amo scored with six minutes left.
When this was done, Spires, Pezzi and the rest of the Lakers watched as no. 3 seed Westhill upended no. 2 seed Skaneateles 1-0 in the other semifinal.
On the one hand, it makes Cazenovia go through its recent nemesis, as the Warriors also prevailed 4-1 when they met in early September. On the other hand, though, there would not be a sweeter way to get a long-elusive championship than to claim it at Westhill’s expense.
