A single blemish did not derail the Fayetteville-Manlius boys soccer team one bit. In fact, thanks to its own work and some help from an unlikely ally, the Hornets are regular-season champions of the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division.
The Hornets were still no. 2 in the state AA rankings despite absorbing its first defeat of the season to Baldwinsville in a 3-1 loss on Oct. 7. It also still held the league lead by a half-game because it had no draws, while B’ville had tied Cicero-North Syracuse 0-0 in late September.
Back home at Swan Pond last Tuesday night, the Hornets met Liverpool, whom it beat handily on Sept. 9, and the result wasn’t much different a month later as F-M shut out the Warriors by a 3-0 margin.
Here, neither team would get on the board in the first half. Perhaps concerned that another costly defeat was possible, F-M went all-out after intermission and put three shots in the net within a span of six minutes.
The onrush began with Nate Donella’s goal, assisted by Noah Craig. Within four minutes, it was 2-0 thanks to a goal by Grant Olick-Sutphen where, again, Craig earned the assist. And and it took only 90 more seconds to stretch out the margin further as Olick-Sutphen’s well-timed pass led Cole Teelin to score.
Once the game was over, F-M turned into Liverpool fans because, two nights later, the Warriors were hosting B’ville. And when Liverpool pulled out a 1-0 decision on Ben Root’s goal, the Hornets, without any further effort, had clinched the outright SCAC Metro title.
Still, the Hornets wanted to close the regular season strong – and it did, going to West Genesee Friday night and prevailing 2-1 over the Wildcats, though it was a far cry from the 5-0 blowout F-M had against WG at Swan Pond in late September.
Olick-Sutphen and Craig earned goals to build a 2-0 advantage, but F-M could not pull away this time, the Wildcats’ defense holding up well due to 17 saves from David Wenner. And WG got within one thanks to Griffin Dombroske’s goal with 18 minutes left, assisted by Griffin Sasso, but the Hornets held on.
Meanwhile, the F-M girls soccer team is making itself a championship contender, having gained a big 4-3 win over defending sectional champion Liverpool on Oct. 3.
And the Hornets didn’t stop there, knocking off Rochester Aquinas 2-0 at the end of that week thanks to first-half goals by Rachel Dobricki and Lauren Martin as Anna Hartzheim and Ashley Carter got credit for assists.
Two days later, hosting Horseheads (Section IV), F-M proved even more potent, bashing the Blue Raiders 6-1 as it scored four times in the first half and kept on rolling with a well-balanced attack.
Hartzheim and Carter each scored twice, Hartzheim adding an assist as Dobricki picked up a goal and two assists. Alexa LaRocca also had a goal as Hannah Knych matched Dobricki, earning a pair of assists.
F-M then met West Genesee Friday night and played the Hornets to a 1-1 draw, unable to complete the sweep of the Wildcats after beating them 2-1 on Sept. 26.
Cady Barns’ first-half goal , assisted by Knych, put the Hornets in front, but Grace Walker answered for WG in the second half and, despite many chances in regulation and overtime, F-M could not get anything more past Wildcats goalie Liz Croft, who finished with nine saves.
Given the no. 4 seed for the Section III Class AA playoffs, F-M will host no. 5 seed Cicero-North Syracuse Friday night at 6 p.m. in the quarterfinals, with the winner facing top seed B’ville in the semifinals.
Of course, the boys Hornets have the top seed in its Class AA sectional bracket, and on Thursday night host the survivor of a first-round game between Utica Proctor and Central Square. Kickoff is at 6:30.s
