ONONDAGA COUNTY – Aside from all its other hopes this fall, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls soccer team was most interested in reclaiming neighborhood supremacy from East Syracuse Minoa.
The Spartans’ perfect 11-0 season in 2020 also was the last on the sidelines for Red Rams head coach Hayley Nies, who stepped down after the season, replaced by former Fayetteville-Manlius assistant Matt Murphy.
It could not have started better for Murphy as, on Sept. 2, J-D hosted Liverpool and relied on some familiar faces to deliver a 2-0 victory over the Warriors.
During a decisive first half, Sydney Balotin and Brooke Bort both scored for the Rams, with assists going to Megan Baker and Alice O’Connor. And the defense kept Liverpool off the board, Lauren Parker recording nine saves.
An even bigger test came on Sept. 4 when J-D challenged F-M, whose lineup included Morgan Goodman and Lauren Clark, standouts on the 2019 Hornets team that reached the state Class AA title game.
And it was Clark delivering F-M to a 2-1 victory, netting the only goal of the first half and converting again to answer a tally from Balotin in the second half. Parker had to make 10 saves to keep it close.
As for ESM, it underwent its own exciting game on Sept. 3 against visiting West Genesee, unable to hold two different leads in a 2-2 draw with the Wildcats.
Natalie Peterson’s goal gave the Spartans a 1-0 edge that held until Rylee Gonzalez answered midway through the second half,.
It stayed tied into OT. During the first 10-minute extra period, ESM again went in front, 2-1, as Leah Rehm converted, but with eight minutes left in the second OT Anna Nelson put one past Isabelle Chavoustie, tying it once more.
Both sides were busy on defense, with Chavoustie getting 12 saves and Wildcats goalie Jenna Orr recording 14 saves.
As if this wasn’t enough for ESM, it would host F-M on Wednesday night in yet another local showdown, one that would again drag into overtime before the Hornets pulled it out 1-0.
What made this first defeat since 2019 so frustrating for the Spartans was that it controlled the ball and had it in F-M’s end of the field for large portions of regulation, with Rehm earning a couple of good chances in the first half.
This lingered deep into the second half, too, before the Hornets finally started to provide some consistent pressure, which only picked up as the game went into overtime still scoreless.
Ultimately, two free kicks by Goodman defined the outcome. In the first OT, Goodman sent a long drive off the crossbar, the closest either side had come to a goal yet.
Then, with 2:17 left in the second OT, on a free kick from the right side 20 yards out, Goodman again managed to find the crossbar, but the ensuing scramble saw Kendall Clark poke it past Chavoustie for the game-winner.
Those struggles for ESM carried over into Saturday’s game at Liverpool, another 1-0 defeat where Carissa Ruediger’s first-half goal held up and none of the Spartans’ six shots got past Warriors goalie Margaret Tifft.
By contrast, J-D gained even more confidence from Friday’s 2-1 win over Baldwinsville. Megan Baker scored in the first half and, after the Bees tied it, returned in the 52nd minute to convert what proved to be a decisive penalty kick.
Another high-profile game on Sept. 4 had Christian Brothers Academy face Cicero-North Syracuse in the debut for new Brothers head coach Marcelo Vitale.
It proved a rough one for the Brothers, who fell 5-0 as Emilee Rio led the Northstars’ charge, putting in three goals for a hat trick. The other goals went to Madelyn Jackson and Ellysia Germain.
But CBA recovered in a big way last Tuesday with an impressive 3-1 victory over Marcellus, dashing out to a 2-0 edge by halftime and answering the Mustangs’ lone second-half tally. Amelia Bonacci and Allison Boule both earned one goal and one assist, with Abby Uryniak also converting.
Bishop Grimes opened last Tuesday by blanking Pulaski 1-0, a game decided on Jenna Sloan’s second-half goal as the Cobras overcame 14 saves by Blue Devils keeper Rachel Sadore. Grimes then lost 2-0 to Bishop Ludden on Saturday.
