CENTRAL NEW YORK – Across four different tournament brackets, five area high school girls soccer teams began their respective quests for Section III championships and four of them have made it to the semifinal round.
Fayetteville-Manlius and East Syracuse Minoa sat in the no. 2 and 3 spots, respectively, in Class AA, bound for a semifinal showdown Tuesday at Nottingham if each of them got past Thursday’s quarterfinals – which they did.
F-M handled Fulton 4-1, getting on the board in the opening minutes of the game and steadily gaining control through an attack led by the duo of Morgan Goodman and Mary Coughlin.
Netting her 27th and 28th goals of the season, Goodman was helped by Coughlin’s goal and assist. Elyssa Barnhart also found the net as Reese Niccolls and Jana Hodge also picked up goals.
ESM, meanwhile, again turned to its 100-goal wonder, Leah Rehm, as its main threat and turned her loose in a 4-0 quarterfinal victory over no. 6 seed Central Square.
Three times, Rehm put shots past Redhawks goalie Natalee Crandall for her latest hat trick. Michaela Hurlbut had the other goal, also joining Khloe Welch and Ava Burry in the assist column. Overall, ESM took 16 shots to Central Square’s one.
Splitting two regular-season meetings, F-M and ESM both have reason to think they can win the third and most important encounter to set up a sectional final Friday at SUNY-Cortland against West Genesee or Whitesboro.
Over in Class A, Jamesville-DeWitt had the no. 3 seed and would meet no. 6 seed Mexico in Thursday night’s quarterfinal after the Tigers edged South Jefferson 1-0 in the opening round.
It proved tense from start to finish, with Mexico getting twice as many opportunities, yet not getting anything past goalie Lindsay Parker, who finished with 10 saves.
Rewarding what Parker and her teammates were doing, J-D’ s Noor El-Zammar put one past Mexico goalie Caprice Cutuli, assisted by Emily Wilcox, and the Rams held on the rest of the way, advancing to face reigning state champion New Hartford in Tuesday’s Class A semifinal at Chittenango.
Christian Brothers Academy, holding the no. 4 seed in Class B, met no. 13 seed Adirondack in last Tuesday’s opening round and easily turned back the Wildcats 6-0.
The Brothers really spread it around as those six goals came from six different players. Katherine Williams, Naveah Bacheyle, Carleigh Morgia, Emma Hill, Abby Uryniak and Kendall Donegan all took turns finding the net, while Marienn Murphy had two assists. Hill, Williamson, Ciara Duggan and Francesca Canzano all got assists.
Still at Alibrandi Stadium on Thursday, it was CBA against no. 5 seed Phoenix in the quarterfinals, and the Brothers again earned a shutout, defeating the Firebirds 3-0 to advance to a semifinal against top seed Lowville.
While holding Phoenix to just five shots, Hill, Canzano and Lauren Zollo took turns putting in goals, while Williamson and Duggan picked up assists.
Bishop Grimes had a short stay in the Class C sectional bracket, the no. 16 seed Cobras dropping a 2-0 decision at home to no. 17 seed Stockbridge Valley/Morrisville-Eaton in a play-in game.
With the winner to get top seed and defending champion Sauquoit Valley, Grimes saw Olivia Bitz and Bailee Halsey make 17 saves between them, but give up goals to Sophia Stevens and Abby Fisher as the Cobras finished its season 4-13.
