All local Section III teams are going to sectionals this year, with Cortland, Tully, Cincinnatus, McGraw and DeRuyter earning a home game in the first round.
Cortland (6-9-1) is the No. 8 seed at Class A and will host No. 9 Mexico (9-4-3) at 6 p.m. today to start the festivities. The winner will face No. 1 Jamesville-Dewitt (12-4) in the quarterfinals Thursday.
Cortland beat Mexico 2-1 on the road on Sept. 10. The Purple Tigers pulled off the win in the second overtime period. Sawyer Bowman and Cal Albright each had a goal and an assist in the victory.
Albright has been Cortland’s top scorer this year with nine goals and five assists. Bowman also had six goals and two assists and Daniel Dubetsky has notched three goals and five assists. Goalkeeper Liam Burns has made 139 saves at a 78.5% clip this season.
Mexico started the season 0-3 before ripping off a 9-1-3 run.
“We are excited about our matchup for sectionals and to have home-field advantage for the first round,” Cortland head coach Luke Schweider said. “We played them earlier in the year and had very similar stats for the game. The guys are excited because they knew they didn’t play to their potential during the game and didn’t take advantage of good opportunities. The last few games we have picked up the intensity and energy and can tell the guys are committed to our motto of ‘All In.’ We have dealt with adversity and have battled it out in close games. Our goal this season was to earn a home sectional game and to win a sectional game. We are looking forward to our matchup (today) and feel like we can put the pieces together to come out with a win.”
Homer (3-9-2) will be the No. 13 seed in the Class A tournament and has a long road trip to No. 4 South Jefferson (9-6-1) at 7 p.m. today. The winner of that game will face either No. 5 Indian River (9-6-1) or No. 12 Carthage (6-8-2) Thursday.
The two don’t have any common opponents, but Homer has a minus-17 goal differential to South Jefferson’s plus-31.
Ian Small, Kyler Crump and Tristyn Henkel led the Trojans’ offense all season. Small went for six goals and two assists, Crump added five goals and an assist and Henkel recorded three goals and four assists.
South Jefferson has six players with double-digit points this season, led by Regan Lawlee’s seven goals and 12 assists. Nathan Matteson has eight goals and seven helpers and Chase Waite scored nine times.
Tully (11-5) takes the No. 2 seed at Class C after a bit of a rough stretch to end the season. The Black Knights will host No. 15 Thousand Islands (5-9-2) at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The winner will take on the winner of No. 7 Cooperstown (11-5) and No. 10 Frankfort-Schuyler (7-8-1) Friday. Tully is currently in a stretch of four losses in five games, all to top-five teams in the Class C tournament.
Tully rides with its three top players offensively –– Ryan Rauber, Julian Shay and Connor Bastedo. Rauber has 15 goals and eight assists, Shay has 10 goals and five assists and Bastedo has recorded seven goals and four assists. Shay has been dealing with a hamstring injury on and off all season. Oscar Breitzka has an 83.6% save rate this year, stopping 97 shots.
Cincinnatus (14-2) got the No. 6 seed at Class C in its first season under Jherrett Maroney. The Lions will host No. 11 Sauquoit Valley (3-11-1) at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The winner will face the winner of No. 3 Manlius Pebble Hill (9-4-2) and No. 14 Stockbridge Valley/Morrisville-Eaton (5-9-2) Friday.
McGraw (10-5-1) will be the No. 6 seed at Class D and host a familiar foe in No. 11 Otselic Valley (5-9-1) at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The winner will face the winner of No. 3 Poland (11-4-1) and No. 14 LaFargeville (5-10-1) Friday. McGraw has beaten Otselic Valley twice this season by a combined score of 5-1.
DeRuyter (8-6-2) is the No. 7 seed at Class D and will host No. 10 Copenhagen (9-7) at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The winner will take on either No. 2 Faith Heritage (10-4-1) or No. 15 Alexandria (4-11) Friday. Copenhagen only played two teams outside the Frontier League, so there was no overlap with DeRuyter’s schedule. The Golden Knights have a minus-one goal differential to DeRuyter’s plus-31.
The Rockets will likely be without leading scorer Devens Whalen the remainder of the season. That will put more pressure on Deymis Martinez Ramirez (seven goals, one assist), Aden Daley (six goals, two assists) and Gavin Miller (five goals, four assists).
Copenhagen eighth grader Bryce Spaulding leads the offense with 13 goals and an assist. Logan Jordal also had six goals and three helpers.
“I don’t know much about Copenhagen, honestly,” DeRuyter head coach Matt Skeele said. “It’s tough to compare, but we fell where I thought we would. Toward the last couple of weeks, we were trying to make sure we definitely locked in a home game.”
“I think if we can work on some things and get our offense together, we’ve been pretty solid defensively,” Skeele added. “I’m hopeful that we can put together some good minutes and good halves.”
