Claiming a Section III Class C championship was not new for the Jamesville-DeWitt girls lacrosse team, but having to beat its neighbors from East Syracuse Minoa to get that prize was different.

In its first season in the Class C ranks, the Spartans worked its way to last Tuesday night’s title game, the direct result of an inspired post-season effort capped by its 18-12 victory over Fulton in the May 23 semifinals at CBA’s Alibrandi Stadium.

ESM have to get through a Fulton side that had reached the sectional finals each of the previous two years, though it had played quite well against them in two high-scoring regular-season meetings that the sides split.

Other than allowing the first goal, the Spartans never trailed, and once Katherine Andrus converted on a dazzling end-to-end effort to put her side in front 3-2, the Red Raiders would spend the rest of the game chasing ESM.

Any time Fulton tried to catch up, the Spartans countered, whether it was Julianna Barton’s goal after the Red Raiders cut the margin to 6-5 or Andrus finding the net 27 seconds before halftime, stretching the margin to 9-6.

A weather delay for lightning in the area prolonged halftime for half an hour, but once the game resumed, the back-and-forth continued until Andrus, Barton and Emma Biel hit on consecutive goals, extending ESM’s lead to 13-8 early in the second half.

It never got closer again, Andrus finishing with a career-best six goals as Rileigh White had four assists to go with her pair of tallies. Kelly Thomas had a three-goal hat trick to match Barton as Biel scored twice. Sophia Orlando and Julia Caruana had one goal apiece and Anna James finished with nine saves.

All of this followed the first semifinal between top seed J-D and no. 4 seed Cortland, which ended 19-7 in the Red Rams’ favor, though the final did not reflect some early nerves.

Having lost twice to J-D in the regular season by margins of 18-10 and 17-9, the Purple Tigers hung right with the Rams throughout the early stages, even using goals by Morgan Tabel and Grace Call to pull even 4-4 late in the first half.

Had it stayed this way until halftime, Cortland may have made J-D worry even more – but in the last 2:06, Ana Dieroff scored and Lindsay MacLachlan hit on her third goal.

Not only did it put the Rams in front 6-4, it foreshadowed a blitz early in the second half where Emliy Bobrek, Arysa Lux and Kailey McKenna all scored, and after Cortland cut the margin to 9-5, J-D outscored them 10-2 the rest of the way.

MacLachlan earned 11 points from her five goals and six assists. Dieroff scored four times, with Lily Loewenguth getting three goals as Riley LaTray had two goals and one assist. Ava Brazie and Jordan Archer also had goals.

So it’s J-D against ESM next Tuesday at 5:30 at SUNY-Cortland, battling for the sectional Class C championship.