Less than 30 seconds into overtime, Sudik scooped up a failed clearing attempt by the Carthage defense and fired a 20-yard, one-bounce shot into the Comets' empty net for the game-winning goal.

Moments before Sudik's decisive shot, ES-M junior midfielder Mike Recor had won the all-important faceoff from Carthage middie Paul Zando to begin sudden-death overtime. Seconds later, Jeff Lewis' line drive shot was saved by Carthage goalie McLean Beyor.

However, as Carthage struggled desperately to clear the ball upfield, and with Beyor having exited the goalmouth, a Comets' pass was knocked down by Lewis. Alertly, Sudik scooped up the loose ball and fired a one-bounce shot into the unguarded goal for the 6-5 win.

ES-M (15-5) advanced to a 5 p.m. title game Saturday against defending champion Jamesville-DeWitt (12-8) while second-seeded Carthage finished 16-4. J-D edged No. 1-seeded Watertown 11-10 in the other semifinal.

ES-M coach Todd Freeman wasn't surprised by his squad's aggressive play as the overtime session got under way. "It's important to ride hard defensively, especially in an overtime situation," said Freeman afterward. "We didn't want Carthage to get the ball downfield and set up for a shot at winning the game. We work hard in practice on stopping clears in critical situations like we were facing tonight, and it certainly paid off."

Sudik added, "There was no way we wanted to let Carthage get that ball downfield in overtime. We knew we had to intercept their clearing pass and that's exactly what we did."

ES-M was paced to victory by the scoring of Lewis (four goals) and by the solid play of its defense, led by Empire State Games gold medalist goalie Stefan Schroder's 13 saves. For Lewis, the victory sets up a busy weekend for the younger brother of Le Moyne College sophomore attacker Ryan Lewis.

After Jeff and his teammates seek the Section 3 title Saturday, the Lewis family will head to Baltimore to watch as four former ES-M Spartans, including Ryan, face off against Limestone College at 3 p.m. Sunday for the NCAA Division II title. (The other three Spartans playing at Le Moyne are middies Chris Moore and Kyle Reichel plus defender Chris Doran).

Earlier, Carthage seized a fast 2-0 lead on consecutive goals by Zando and Mario Ventiquattro to start the game, but ES-M seized a 3-2 lead to end the opening period. The Spartans' third goal came with one second left in the quarter when Lewis took a feed from middie Alex Schaller and blasted a line drive into the Carthage goal to end the period.

After a scoreless second quarter, the evenly matched teams were tied at 4-4 after three periods and at 5-5 to end regulation play. ES-M's Lewis notched his fourth and final goal, assisted by Markus Fallico, with 3:43 left in regulation, creating the game's final deadlock.

Concerning the short overtime session, Carthage coach Kirk Ventiquattro said, "In hindsight, I should have tried to call time out when we were trying to clear the ball. I was going to call for time when we got the ball to midfield, but we never advanced the ball that far before they intercepted it."

For the game, ES-M outshot the Comets 37-25, but 21 of the Spartans' shot missed the cage entirely.

"Our shooting was pretty sloppy today," agreed Freeman. "Actually, our best offense was our (defensive) ride because three times tonight we got goals right after our defensive pressure forced turnovers."

Class B semifinal; J-D 11, Watertown 10:After falling behind 3-0 to start the game, fifth-seeded J-D rallied behind the scoring of Austin Deyo (four goals) and Brian Becker (two goals, four assists) to oust Frontier League champion Watertown (16-3) and earn a return trip to the title game.

J-D rallied to build a 7-5 lead at halftime and 10-7 lead after three periods, but Watertown rallied to gain a 10-10 tie when Brian Berkman scored with two minutes to play. Then, J-D got the winning goal from Adam Orlandella, assisted by Jim Fiacco, with 47 seconds to play. J-D middie John Fallon, winner of 18-of-23 faceoffs, won the ensuing faceoff and J-D ran out the clock.

Syracuse University-bound Kenny Nims netted four goals to lead Watertown.

© 2004 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.