During the last week of the regular season, the Chittenango girls soccer team was intent to build upon the good work it had done to turn around a mid-season slump, including its 3-1 win over Cazenovia on Oct. 7.
The Bears hosted Solvay last Tuesday night and got an effort from its offense similar to what it was doing early this fall during a 7-0 shutout of the Bearcats.
For Chittenango, the most encouraging part was the distribution of its production. Emily Moon led the way, scoring twice and getting a pair of assists, while Madison Wagner also got two goals.
Maryanna Garcia finished with one goal and one assist as Sarah Martin and Ally Shoemaker also found the net. Bears goalkeeper Cassidy Kelly stopped all nine shots she faced.
A night later, amid the wind and rain, Chittenango faced Mexico, and the challenging conditions affected both teams, but the Bears did enough to edge the Tigers 3-2.
Martin had a part in each of Chittenango’s three scoring plays, netting two goals and assisting on Ally Shoemaker’s tally. Shoemaker also assisted on a Martin goal and Kelly had to make seven saves.
And the Bears traveled north to face General Brown Saturday afternoon, where it prevailed 2-1 over the Lions, goals by Garcia and Martin proving enough as Kelly recorded seven saves.
Cazenovia, meanwhile, only had one game last week, but made it count as it traveled to Hannibal and, with a big first half, produced a 4-1 victory over the Warriors.
All of the goals came early as Caitlin Smithers and Katie Rajkowski led the way, each finishing with one goal and one assist. Julia Reff also had a goal as as Ava Gavitt and Molly Dolan got assists, too.
With a final regular-season mark of 11-4-1, Cazenovia picked up the no. 8 seed for the Section III Class B playoffs and host no. 9 seed South Jefferson in Wednesday’s opening round. A possible quarterfinal with top seed Central Valley Academy could await the Lakers with a victory over the Spartans.
And with its 13-3 record, Chittenango landed the no. 6 seed. Also at home for its opening-round game, the Bears face no. 11 seed Phoenix on Thursday night, the winner to get to the quarterfinals against no. 3 seed Westhill or no. 14 seed General Brown.
