ONONDAGA COUNTY – Though it is defending the Section III Class AAA championship, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls soccer team understands that this title, if achieved, would represent a real example of quick growth and maturity.
Having to trot out such a young lineup, the Northstars still managed to go 10-5-1 in the regular season and then earn the no. 2 playoff seed, then proceeded to unload on no. 7 seed Utica Proctor in Thursday’s quarterfinal at Bragman Stadium.
For the second time, C-NS hit double digits, blanking the Raiders 10-0 to equal the margin it put together when it played against Oneonta a month earlier.
During a wild first half the Northstars averaged a goal every five minutes and established an 8-0 margin, with the quartet of Abby Mackey, Lilah Kelly , Alexa Belknap and Briar Raymond each scoring twice by game’s end.
Sloane Raymond had a goal and two assists and Mya Jenkins also got two assists. Gianna Matthews had the other goal, with Gianna Melfi, Addy Mackey, Riley Joyce and Aaliyah McDonald also picking up assists.
At Jamesville-DeWitt Wednesday night C-NS meets no. 3 seed Fayetteville-Manlius in the semifinals, with a berth in Saturday night’s championship game at SUNY-Cortland at stake.
Liverpool, holding the no. 4 seed in Class AAA, had to beat no. 5 seed Rome Free Academy to earn a berth in the other semifinal against top seed Baldwinsville, who had a bye and rested the entire week.
In that game at LHS Stadium Friday night, the Warriors and Black Knights would have a 2-1 decision, just as they had two weeks earlier in Rome– only it would go in RFA’s favor.
The two sides played through a scoreless first half. Then RFA took the lead on a Brooke Egrestis goal, only to have Liverpool force a handball inside the 18-yard box producing a penalty kick that Lauren Graham converted to tie it.
It stayed 1-1 into OT, a 15-minute period with a golden-goal format. With less than five minutes left, Black Knights junior Amelia Furbeck drove left and then delivered a hard shot which eluded Avery Smith and found the top of the net to end the Warriors’ season.
