LIVERPOOL – Now it will all come down to whether the Cicero-North Syracuse field hockey team will again claim the Section III Class A championship and whether Liverpool will have a chance to take the Northstars down.
These two rivals split a pair of spirited, exciting 2-1 matches in the regular season, each side winning on the road, but what happened elsewhere played a large role in shaping the six-team sectional playoff bracket.
C-NS, with a lot of high-quality wins, rose to the top seed. Liverpool settled for the no. 3 seed, with no. 2 seed Rome Free Academy between them, in large part due to the Black Knights beating the Warriors 2-0 in the last week of the regular season.
In order to have a shot at the sectional title, the Warriors would need to avenge that loss to RFA, and gets a chance to do so next Tuesday in the semifinals at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill before C-NS met Baldwinsville (a 3-0 opening-round winner over Fayetteville-Manlius) in the first semifinal.
Having to face no. 6 seed Auburn in last Tuesday’s opening round at LHS Stadium, Liverpool was quiet for long stretches of the game, but one loud – and quick – outburst in the second quarter led to a 3-0 win over the Maroons.
Against a team it beat 4-0 on Sept. 18, the Warriors were contained for most of the first half. Then, with 4:45 left in the half, Liverpool took the lead.
A second goal followed, then a third, all in a span of 57 seconds, a rare outburst in any stick-and-ball sport, let alone field hockey.
Leading the charge, Gianna Carbone converted twice, with Mia Berthoff getting the other goal and assisting on one of Carbone’s tallies as Caitlyn Guilfoil also had an assist.
In defeat, Auburn goalie Isabela Patane had nine saves, but had to watch Liverpool advance to the semifinal with RFA.
