A memorable week, on and off the field, for the Fayetteville-Manlius field hockey team culminated in a stunning home win on Saturday afternoon. Baldwinsville, with an 11-2 record, arrived at the Hornets’ home field and took nearly all the shots – but could not put anything home, and F-M took advantage of its rare opportunity to knock off the Bees 1-0. Quickly, the pattern got established as B’ville sent waves at the F-M net, only to be met by a determined defense, led by Sam Hotchkiss and Mary Bucklin, and by a hot goalie in Abby Cunningham. Cunningham got her support midway through the first half. Off a penalty corner, Kendra Napierala took the pass from Tara Wellington and beat B’ville goalie Lindsay Farrell. Then, for the last 45-plus minutes, the Hornets held on against the constant wave of Bees’ attackers. Cunningham never did better, stopping all 25 shots she faced. Many of the F-M athletic teams have been at the forefront of fund-raising efforts related to Coaches vs. Cancer and the American Cancer Society. So it made sense that the field hockey Hornets, when it visited Cicero-North Syracuse last Tuesday night, was part of the Northstars’ own “Stick It to Cancer” event. As more than $10,000 got raised for the ACS through T-shirt sales and other donations, F-M and CNS waged a spirited battle on the Bragman Stadium turf, where the Hornets took a 2-1 loss to the Northstars. This came exactly three days after F-M, on its home grass, beat CNS by that exact same 2-1 margin. Not only was the surface different in the immediate rematch, so was the way things turned around late. Napierala, who had scored in the first meeting, notched a goal in this game, too, and the Hornets maintained that 1-0 lead to halftime. Forced to defend against CNS’s frequent charges, F-M held up for a while, and Cunningham made 14 saves, But CNS tied it on Alaina Stojkovski’s goal, then went ahead for good when Kristi Thompson flung a shot past Cunningham with 3:57 left in regulation. On Thursday, the Hornets rolled past Watertown 4-0, pulling away after a close first half. And Napierala proved unstoppable as she registered a three-goal hat trick and assisted on Katelyn Gualtieri’s scoring play. Molly Winiecki stepped in to earn a pair of assists. East Syracuse-Minoa notched its third win of its comeback varsity campaign on Wednesday night, going to Homer and recording a 3-2 victory over the Trojans. Not once this season had the Spartans scored three times in any contest. But it played Homer to a 1-1 halftime tie, then inched ahead in the second half as its attack started to get more effective. Amy Loder, Melissa Koch and Charlotte Visser each took turns getting goals, with Kayla Russell picking up an assist. Between them, goalies Nicole Nieset and Danielle Hobb preserved that edge, recording 12 saves between them. On Thursday, the Spartans lost to Cortland 2-0, with the Purple Tigers’ Sarah Hartnett earning one goal in each half to negate the combined 12 saves from Nieset and Hobb. ESM took five shots, all of them stopped by Cortland goalie Maggie Brown.