CENTRAL NEW YORK – Reaching the midway point of the regular season the Fayetteville-Manlius boys soccer team found itself parked among the area Class AAA favorites thanks to its 6-1-1 start and no. 9 state Class AAA ranking.
This would get put on the line last Tuesday night at West Gensee, ranked no. 13 in the state in Class AA, but with superb defense and one timely attack the Hornets beat the Wildcats 1-0.
Rain fell throughout the first half where WG largely controlled the ball with short passes and made deep forays into F-M territory, but rarely could get it past a tough Hornets back line of defenders led by Antonie Aombe, John Burns and Nikolas Morris.
F-M did not get a direct shot until the 12th minute when Aiden Burkett, off a feed from Tom Helmer, slid a low just inside the right post and past a diving Boston Crandall.
For the rest of the first half and a large portion of the second half, the Wildcats returned to its possession game but didn’t start regularly taking shots until the latter stages, and usually from long range, which the Hornets turned back. Jeremy Albert only had to make three saves.
F-M had only played a night earlier against Whitesboro, battling all 80 minutes to win 1-0 as it got the only goal it needed from Connor Hutko, with Henry Dougherty picking up an assist. The Hornets’ defense held Whitesboro to just two shots all night.
A third game in the week brought a third Hornets shutout Saturday as it turned back Henninger 3-0, finally able to find a bit more offense to go with its stellar back line.
Jonathan Palmer’s pair of goals keyed F-M’s late getaway. The other goal went to Helmer, with Esref Canli and Mahinda Vitharana each getting one assist.
Christian Brothers Academy made it back-to-back wins last Monday at the expense of reigning sectional Class B champion Marcellus, edging past the Mustangs in another 1-0 decision in its only game last week.
While both teams had plenty of opportunities all game long, the only goal came in the first half when Xavier Kucera converted for the Brothers off a feed from Ben Chiodi.
And it held up the rest of the way, with CBA goalie Rocco Grotto stopping all 11 Marcellus shots he faced, the same save total as Mustangs counterpart Ryan Stephens.
