In its second marquee match-up against a Class A foe in as many weeks, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls lacrosse team wanted more success against Fayetteville-Manlius last Wednesday night at Bragman Stadium.
The Northstars had a solid effort, too, but the Hornets proved to have a bit too much, prevailing by a score of 12-9.
F-M, now coached by Tom Blackford (the team’s third coach in as many years), kept right up with the frantic pace the Northstars wanted to set in the first half.
By doing so, and going up 7-6 just before the break, the Hornets set itself up to take over in the second half, where its depth wore CNS down just enough to succeed.
Lis Zuern led the Northstars, scoring four times, as Ashley Waldron scored twice. Rachel Geruso, Tori Praino and Missy Pacini each had single tallies.
Alex Gale made 23 saves, but F-M’s Lauren Webster countered with 20 saves as Morgan Axenfeld led the Hornets’ attack with five goals.
Just before meeting F-M, the Northstars ran across Westhill last Tuesday, making up the snow-postponed March 29 meeting, and lost to the Warriors 22-16.
CNS never recovered from a rough first half where Westhill dominated the flow of play and built a 12-5 advantage. From there, all it could do was exchange offensive rushes, unable to cut into the deficit.
Zuern finished with six goals and two assists. Praino (four goals, one assist) and Waldron (three goals, three assists) also had big outings, as Ashley Caporizzo added two goals and one assist. Emily Bryerton added a goal. Alyssa Cristaldi and Rachel Geruso earned assists.
Gale made 12 saves, but Westhill still proved overwhelming. Laura Zimmerman, going to the University of North Carolina next fall, had six goals and three assists as Katie Doherty added five goals and one assist.
