CENTRAL NEW YORK – Years of work, sacrifice, sweat and dedication have, for the East Syracuse Minoa girls soccer team, all led to this Friday evening, this particular game, and this specific opponent.
On the other side in this Friday night’s Section III Class A championship game at SUNY-Cortland is New Hartford, also undefeated, but carrying the mantle of defending sectional and state champions, the prizes ESM so desperately wants.
With New Hartford atop the state rankings and ESM at no. 3, it is, by a wide margin, the most anticipated match-up in Central New York this fall, only made more so by the fact that both Spartans sides dominated their opposition in the regular season and again in two rounds of sectional play, including Tuesday’s semifinals at Chittenango High School.
Going first, ESM rolled past no. 4 seed Whitesboro 5-0, having its way even though the Warriors managed to do what no one else had this season – hold Leah Rehm without a goal or assist.
Instead, as the Spartans built a 2-0 halftime advantage and pulled further away late, it was Ashley Praxl stepping up to score twice and match Angelina Polcaro, who also picked up an assist. Bailey Rehm had the other goal, with Natalie Peterson and Jazzel Meikelham also getting assists.
ESM then watched as New Hartford put away Jamesville-DeWitt 7-0 in the other semifinal game, also leading 2-0 at halftime before it got away from the Red Rams.
This was a showcase for Willa Pratt, who burned J-D’s defense for five goals. The other goals went to Anna Rayhill and Amanda Graziano, with Alex Volo picking up an assist.
Of course, ESM had another top seed in the boys soccer sectional Class A tournament, but its quest to repeat as champions was cut short in the semifinals at Fayetteville-Manlius when it lost, 3-2, to no. 4 seed New Hartford.
All looked fine when Jackson Tedesco put ESM up 1-0 just 2:16 into the game, but New Hartford tied it when Brendan Krol converted. Then Krol’s teammate, Noah Partenza, struck two key blows when he netted the go-ahead goal and then made it 3-1 less than a minute before halftime.
ESM, ranked no. 14 in the latest state Class A poll, would tighten up on defense in the second half as Reide Scolaro finished with six saves, and got within one on Joel Alvarez’s goal in the 52nd minute. But with with nearly half an hour to pull even, ESM could not do so, and its season ended with a 15-3 record.
So the sectional final on Saturday at Chittenango will have New Hartford against no. 2 seed Christian Brothers Academy, who was steady and relentless in the other sectional semifinal, a 4-0 shutout over no. 6 seed Watertown.
The state Class A no. 8-ranked Brothers had returned to full strength when Will Harrigan returned the week before from a concussion suffered early in September. Now he burned a Cyclones squad which had eliminated Jamesville-DeWitt in the sectional quarterfinals in penalty kicks.
Scoring twice, Harrigan was helped by Jack Griffith and Andrew Kohlbrenner, who had one goal apiece. Goalie Finn Wheeler, aside from his six saves, also got an assist to join Santiago Betancourt-Trompa, Juliuz Pichardokmp and Zack Mulhern in the assist column.
