A season ago, led by the senior trio of Byam Mugushu, Deng Mawien and Jack Gutchess, the Bishop Grimes boys soccer team made history and stormed to a Section III Class C championship.
Even without the challenges COVID-19 provided, the 2020 season was expected to be a major challenge for the Cobras without the consistent production that forward trio provided.
Their absence was quite evident in Grimes’ season opener at Manlius-Pebble Hill last Tuesday afternoon, with the Trojans breezing to a 4-0 victory.
After inching to a 1-0 halftime edge on Gopal Neopaney’s goal, MPH got away in the latter stages, starting with Alex Fung emerging from a scramble to put home the second goal.
Neopaney’s well-timed feed set up Chance Mugabe for a third goal, and the Trojans locked it up as Johnny Gruninger found the net.
This came right after Gruninger, one of the area’s top amateur golfers, was chosen as Junior Player of the Year and overall Men’s Player of the Year by the Syracuse District Golf Association, the first player ever to win both awards in the same year.
The struggles for Grimes continued on Thursday with a 6-0 loss to Fabius-Pompey, who had Ryan Heselden and Sam Taylor each score twice as Jackson Breed and Cody Sterritt had the other goals.
Moving to girls soccer, Manlius-Pebble Hill opened its season against Onondaga, and were overwhelmed by the Tigers in a 5-1 defeat.
Natalie Storie’s goal prevented a shutout, and goalie Mira Fadda-Conrey produced seven saves. OCS received plenty of production from Ava Spicer, who had two goals and one assist.
It was the same for Bishop Grimes, falling 4-0 to Fabius-Pompey. The Falcons took 17 shots, two of which were put in by Madi Riedl as Maxi Dart and Jamie Ratliff had the other goals.
That same night marked the season debut for Christian Brothers Academy, who traveled to Homer and put up six goals in the first half of an 8-2 romp over the Trojans.
Benito Vlassis displayed his quality in the course of a three-goa hat trick that included a pair of assists. Will Harrigan also had two assists as Jack Griffith and Connor Morgia both got one goal and one assist.
Jack Harrigan, Logan Demetros and Rico Petrosillio added goals, with single assists going to Andrew Kohlbrenner and Santiago Betancourt.
The CBA girls team won 2-0 over Homer in its opener, a goal in each half proving sufficient as Emma Infanti assisted on both scoring plays, finished off by Bella Roberson and Katelyn Courcy. Emily Jones stopped all nine Trojans shots she faced.
