Jumping into the spotlight, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool girls soccer teams both emerged with high-quality wins in the last full week of September.
C-NS got its big win last Wednesday night, at West Genesee, where it had to go to overtime and get a well-timed call to earn a 1-0 victory over the Wildcats.
Against a Northstars side that had just played its own 0-0 game with Fayetteville-Manlius on Sept. 21, the Wildcats, who tied Westhill 0-0 two days earlier, played on fairly even terms in the first half, making solid runs and also using its defense to take away C-NS’s potent speed.
As the second half wore on, though, the Northstars’ chances became more frequent, giving defenders Jackie Pardee, Riley Donahue and Carlee Kingston more work. But they, along with goalie Rebecca Rothenberg, kept turning away C-NS chances, both on runs and set pieces.
This led to a wild first overtime period. In those 10 minutes, both Rothenberg and her C-NS counterpart, Alyssa Jim, made diving, leaping saves near the top left corner, and Hannah Elmer’s shot banged of the crossbar.
Then, with two minutes left in the first OT, Marissa Rio got tackled inside the 18-yard box on a charge to the net, forcing a penalty kick that Hanna Haven converted. WG would not get an answer in the remaining 12 minutes to salvage a draw.
As that went on, Liverpool was at Fayetteville-Manlius, also winning by a 1-0 margin against the same Hornets side it lost to just two weeks earlier at LHS Stadium.
It was Alexis Kline breaking through for the Warriors and getting the go-ahead goal in the first half, with Leanne Barnard earning the assist.
Though Liverpool got nothing more, its defense did a superb job of protecting that slim margin through the rest of the night, limiting F-M to four shots, all of which freshman netminder Isabel Anjorin would stop.
From here, it was on to Saturday night’s home showdown with Baldwinsville, which turned into the Warriors’ best all-around performance of the season as it jumped on the Bees quickly and breezed to a 4-0 victory.
The game was barely five minutes old when, off Barnard’s corner kick, Emma Geyer delivered a perfect header into the top corner of the net. Less than four minutes, another corner kick, from the same spot, led to a 2-0 margin as the rebound came out to Kline, who fired a low shot into the net.
Not content with that near-perfect start, the Warriors kept attacking all over the Bees’ end. That paid off in the 32nd minute when Kline took Erika Rubio’s well-placed free kick and put home her second goal of the night.
Forced into a catch-up mode all night, the Bees could not break through against Rubio, Leah Egan, Leigha Allen, Farrah Ziaie and the rest of a stingy Liverpool back line. With the margin secure, Geyer returned to add a second goal midway through the second half off a feed from Ore Akineplu, whose runs throughout the game caused B’ville all kinds of problems.
Right after beating West Genesee, C-NS blanked Oswego 3-0 on Friday night, this time not requiring any extra work as it gained a 2-0 lead by halftime and tacked on one more in the late going. Reid Garner roared back to form, scoring twice, while Ariah Rosas had the other goal and Mary Kate Ordway added an assist.
So both C-NS and Liverpool appear in great form heading into Friday night’s showdown at Archie Hall Stadium, with the Warriors taking on a much-improved Auburn side and C-NS facing Central Square on Tuesday in the lead-up.
