For much of the 2018 season, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls soccer team gave chase to Baldwinsville, and three different times had the reigning state Class AA champions within range.
Each time, though, the Bees got away from the Northstars in close, hard-fought matches, including Wednesday night’s 1-0 defeat in the Section III semifinal at Chittenango High School.
C-NS, as the no. 4 seed, entered the game with good thoughts following a 5-1 first-round win over no. 5 seed Rome Free Academy on Oct. 20. Plus, it had led in both regular-season meetings against B’ville before taking defeats, one of them in overtime.
In each of those earlier meetings, the Northstars had taken full advantage of the Bees still trying to adjust its back line due to injuries. That adjustment was gone by the time of the playoffs as C-NS would eventually find out.
That didn’t happen right away, though. Nine minutes into the game, the Northstars nearly took the lead again on B’ville as Marissa Bukowski’s shot eluded Jenna Boutilier, but went off the left post and was cleared out.
The patterns were familiar to both teams – the Bees would build possession and rely on its quick group of forward to generate chances, while C-NS waited for a counterattack.
With Anna Aiello, Krystan Dallmann and Madelyn Loomis leading a solid defensive effort, the Bees didn’t have much room to operate, and the game remained 0-0 going into the second half.
But in the 45th minute, B’ville earned a corner kick. A scramble ensured, with C-NS turning away two shots, but the ball bouncing toward the left post, where Hannah Johnson, catching Olivia Haven out of position, tucked in the go-ahead goal.
Though a lot of time remained, the Northstars could not equalize, with Bees goalie Isabella Cartier denying Ashlyn Slate’s best opportunity with 10:50 to play and Cartier stopping Morgan Siechen’s free kick a few minutes later.
B’ville went on to face Fayetteville-Manlius in the secitonal final played at Liverpool High School Stadium as C-NS finished its season with an 11-6-1 record. Ten seniors, including Slate, Siechen, Haven, Loomis, Bukowski and Delaney Stahrr, will graduate, leaving plenty of positions to fill for 2019.
