ONONDAGA COUNTY – Just as it reached the midway point of its regular season, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls lacrosse team found a shot of confidence that it badly needed.

The Northstars were only 4-3 going into last Tuesday’s game against West Genesee at Mike Messere Field, but mostly leaning on its defense, C-NS was able to gain late control and beat the Wildcats 7-5.

Rylee Gonzalez scored in the game’s opening minutes – and WG earned nothing else for most of the rest of the first half, thwarted by a Northstars back line that kept making key stops.

On the other end, C-NS scored four times to build a 4-1 advantage, and didn’t flinch when Cara Major and Ally Major hit on back-to-back goals bridging the first and second half to cut the Northstars’ margin to one.

Instead, C-NS again shut things down, Nicole Mirra working her total to eight saves, and with a timely run of three consecutive goals was able to absorb a late Wildcats surge and overcome Allie Hanlon’s 14 saves.

Fran Tortora and Sam Klein got two goals apiece, helped by Brooke Malchanoff, who had a goal and three assists. Mackenzie Prentice had a goal and two assists as Gabby Putman earned the other goal.

Then C-NS would gear itself up for a rematch with undefeated Baldwinsville, whom it lost to two weeks earlier. Now on the turf at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, the Northstars were close for a while, but lost 13-6, nearly identical to the 12-5 score of the first meeting.

C-NS, at least in the first half, kept the Bees from anything close to the blizzard of goals late in the first half which defined that initial meeting.

Only leading 7-5 at the break, B’ville started dominating at the draw circle thanks to Pozzi and Sophia Ianno, leading to extra possessions and a gradual erosion of the Northstars’ defenses.

Malchanoff had four of C-NS’ six goals. Tortora and Prentice had the others and Mirra got seven saves as, for B’ville, Mia Pozzi poured in five goals, while Carlie Desimone scored three times and got three assists. Sopiha Muscolino had two goals and two assists

B’ville had just did a number on Liverpool, topping the Warriors 24-7 in a game where Mia Pozzi gave the Bees eight goals and two assists as Carlie Desimone had three goals and eight assists, with Sophia Muscolino getting three goals and five assists.

With little chance against that swarm, Liverpool got what it could, especially Maggie Tifft, who had four goals as Gianna Carbone converted twice. Lana Alampi had the other goal as Grace Geary got two assists. Single assists went to Cali Brancato and Cailtyn Guilfoil.

Liverpool lost again, 16-13, to Fayetteville-Manlius on Thursday, not quite able to keep pace with the Hornets despite Abby Geary’s five goals and two assists, plus hat tricks from Tifft and Carbone. Ava Angello led F-M with five goals as Julianna Cogliandro and Emily Noel had four goals apiece.

Both teams played on Saturday, with varying results as C-NS suffered its second consecutive defeat against South Jefferson, falling 8-7 to the Spartans and see its record dip to the .500 mark at 5-5.

Malchanoff’s two goals and two assists were the only multiple tallies by any Northstars player. Prentice, Shea Firth, Tori Iannotti and Gabby Ciciarelli had one goal apiece as Savannah Hodges (three goals) and Julia Garvin (two goals, one assist) led South Jefferson.

Liverpool was able to defeat Webster Thomas 14-3 with three-goal efforts from four different players – Tiff, Carbone, Mia Berthoff and Abby Geary. Berthoff added two assists as Michelle Sacco converted twice.