With one cycle of league play done, the Fayetteville-Manlius field hockey team had proven itself as a championship contender. Now the key was to finish things off against top foes.
And one of those opponents was East Syracuse Minoa, whom the Hornets beat 1-0 on Aug. 31 in its own season-opening tournament, but now would face again last Wednesday at Spartan Stadium.
Just like the first meeting, it was close and competitive, and it had the same outcome, too, only it wasn’t a shutout as F-M topped the Spartans in a 2-1 decision.
The key was that F-M got on the board in the first half. Behind 1-0 at the break, the Spartans, after 90-plus minutes of getting shut out by the Hornets’ defense, broke through thanks to Grace Stone’s goal, assisted by Gillianne McCarthy.
However, F-M would tack on goal of its own as Susan Bansbach and Hannah Hall converted, and it protected that lead through a solid back line and seven saves from Catherine Barr as ESM counterpart Maura Leib had five saves.
Just before this, the Hornets ventured to Liverpool last Monday and shut out the Warriors 2-0, its defense so effective that it gave up just one direct shot. Goals by Grace Lee and Lucy Fowler made the difference.
As that went on, ESM got overwhelmed in last Monday night’s 5-0 defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse as the Northstars’ offense exploded for four goals in the first half.
Despite 10 saves from Leib, the Spartans’ defense had difficulty establishing itself. Meanwhile, five different C-NS players would get goals, with Katie Thies getting a goal and assist as Allie Ball, Bailey Lazorre, Molly Molchanoff and Emily Colagiovanni also found the net.
On Friday night, F-M challenged reigning Section III Class C champion Holland Patent on Friday night, less than a week after the Golden Knights had shut out ESM 3-0 on Sept. 22.
Here, the Hornets got a big win, prevailing 1-0 to move to 10-1-2 overall as it hosts Liverpool on Wednesday and Cazenovia on Saturday afternoon in the first week of October.
ESM and C-NS meet again this Thursday at Spartan Stadium, right after ESM takes on Whitesboro Monday and New Hartford on Wednesday afternoon.
