Cazenovia ends Camden’s run

After spending a majority of the first half on the attack, Cazenovia wins three to one.

Cazenovia and Camden entered Wednesday’s Section III Class B boys soccer semifinal with vastly different postseason pedigrees. The No. 5 Lakers were looking for their third straight appearance in the title match while the No. 9 Blue Devils were looking for their first-ever trip.

Experience – and Joe Spires – won out.

The Lakers leading scorer this season netted a pair of secondhalf goals and added an assist for Cazenovia in the 3-1 victory, carrying the team back to the championship match.

“They’ve worked hard,” said coach Adam Reynolds. “This has been a great generation and some of them have been every time we’ve been but they just work hard and it’s special just because they don’t take it for granted because we have been a couple times and you worry about that as a coach.”

Cazenovia was on the attack for the majority of the first half, starting when Chase Willard grounded shot that Camden’s Luke Campbell cleared in the third minute. Spires put the Lakers’ first shot on goal two minutes later but Blue Devils’ keeper Josh Leos collected the ball at the near post.

Brian Pezzi tested Leos again in the 12th minute with a long

shot that the junior briefly bobbled but secured to keep the match scoreless.

Leos added another save in the 20th minute when a corner kick by Pezzi came back out to him. Pezzi sent the ball back into the box where Jack Aronson put a good header on it but Leos jumped up and snagged the ball at the crossbar. He added his final save of the half on a long shot by Liam Flannery moments later.

Camden, meanwhile, worked the ball down the field on a few occasions throughout the half and had several throw-ins deep in Cazenovia territory but couldn’t put a shot on goal. The Blue Devils earned a corner in the 36th minute and Parker Scholl placed the ball into the box but it just missed the head of Sam Dunfield and the match re- mained scoreless going into halftime.

“I think we were doing everything right but we were just trying too hard and trying to do too much,” said Reynolds. “We trusted each other a little bit more in the second half and it paid off.”

Spires broke through in the 48th minute but not before Leos made his best save of the evening in the 46th. The speedy Cazenovia junior got behind the Camden defense and shot to Leos’ right but the junior keeper knocked the ball straight down and dove on it to end the threat.

“The ball was really slick, my cleats were wet,” said Spires. “The ball just kind of slipped off my foot, kicked it right down the middle but I got back at it next time and scored.”

It didn’t take long. Spires raced through the defense again and this time tapped a shot to Leos’ right and into the net, giving Caze- novia a 1-0 lead.

“I took my time and I made good contact with the ball,” he said. “I just watched it into my foot and put it in the back of the net.

“We just need to get a goal early and the team gets really motivated and we just take that goal and just keep running with it.”

Spires himself ran with it again five minutes later, finding himself one-on-one with Leos and again beating him to extend the lead to 2-0.

Camden tried to get one back in the 56th minute but Cazenovia keeper Ray Satchwell stopped the shot at the near post.

Spires helped the Lakers add to the lead in the 62nd, passing the ball to Pezzi in the middle of the box. Pezzi ripped a shot past Leos, pushing the lead to 3-0.

Camden had a pair of chances to break through, first with a corner in the 70th minute. Scholl’s corner kick was cleared by Cazeno- via’s Tanner Dydo but the Blue Devils quickly earned a free kick from near midfield. Satchwell came up to play the long boot, temporarily securing the shutout.

The No. 9 seed did net a goal in the 74th minute when Zach Amo beat Satchwell to a long cross from Nate Lucero in transition and tapped the ball into the net, cutting the lead to 3-1 but that was as close as Camden would get as Cazenovia ran out the clock and secured a chance to play for the sectional crown.

“It feels really good right now,” said Spires. “We played really well today and we deserve to be there.”

Cazenovia will face the winner of Wednesday’s match between No. 2 Skaneateles and No. 3 Westhill in the final on Monday.