When the Liverpool field hockey team took a 2-1 defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse on Sept. 20, it was the Northstars’ third in a row, and five more would follow.
Yet the Warriors remembered how close it got the first time around, and when the two rivals met again last Tuesday night at LHS Stadium, it was Liverpool putting together its best all-around effort of the season, ending C-NS’s eight-game win streak with a 2-0 shutout.
Entering the night, the Warriors were at 2-9-1, at the opposite end from the Northstars’ 11-3 mark. Yet it was Liverpool playing air-tight defense on one end, taking what it had learned the month before and containing C-NS at every turn.
Any offense would work in these circumstances, but the Warriors got two goals from Kate Salanger as Katrina Bragan and Olivia Hayden each picked up assists on those scoring plays.
There wasn’t a letdown for Liverpool on Thursday night as it went to Cortland and shut out the Purple Tigers by that same 2-0 margin.
Salanger netted her third goal of the week and Bragan also scored, with assists going to Claire Gaynor and Hayley Vivenzo. Only the 23 saves from Cortland goalie Kelsey Gibbons kept it close.
C-NS, meanwhile, was handling Auburn 6-0, doing most of its damage in the second half as Jamie Snyder scored twice, with Alison Bartlett adding a goal and two assists.
Allie Ball, Jamie Wagner and Vanessa Wilkins added goals as Mina Erikson got two assists. Brianna Galway and Julie McDonough each had one assist.
Then C-NS faced Camden on Friday afternoon, and it went to the wire before a last-second goal helped the Blue Devils edge the Northstars 2-1.
Liverpool closed its regular season Saturday by edging Holland Patent 1-0, another shutout where Abbie Bragan stopped all eight Golden Knights shots she faced. Gaynor’s first-half goal, assisted by Brittany Halpin, was all the Warriors needed.
Despite all this, the Warriors missed the Section III Class A playoffs and C-NS ended up with the top seed. Next Monday at Baldwinsville’s Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, the Northstars meet Fayetteville-Manlius in one Class A semifinal, with B’ville taking on Rome Free Academy in the other.
