On consecutive weekend nights, the Liverpool soccer teams would storm into the Section III Class AA quarterfinals, testing to see whether they can storm out – and play into November.
Of the two, only the girls Warriors, the no. 4 seed, would make it through, turning to an unlikely offensive force in the second half to earn a 3-0 victory over no. 5 seed West Genese on Saturday afternoon.
Through one half, the Wildcats had held Liverpool in check, keeping the game 0-0. But after the break, Liverpool took over, with Ally Zywicki in the spotlight.
Having scored just two goals all season, Zywicki made it three as she put the Warriors ahead 1-0. Then she didn’t stop there, adding a second goal and, for good measure, beating WG goalie Moriah Saidel to complete a three-goal hat trick.
Kim Murphy earned assists on two of Zywicki’s tallies, with Kayla Szczesniak also getting an assist. Meanwhile, the Warriors’ defense, led by Aimee Caluwe, Danielle Sheehan and Chelsea Bowers, held the Wildcats to four shots.
In Tuesday’s Class AA semifinals (to be played at West Genesee), Liverpool will meet no. 1 seed Baldwinsville, whom it lost to in a pair of 2-1 matches in the regular season. The winner would get Cicero-North Syracuse or Fayetteville-Manlius in the championship game.
The night before Liverpool’s girls beat West Genesee, the boys soccer Warriors saw its playoff run end against no. 2 seed Baldwinsville in a 4-0 defeat to the three-time defending sectional champions.
Having lost 2-0 to those same Bees in a mud-filled contest on Oct. 16, Liverpool caught a break when the game got moved to Fulton because the Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium grass still was in poor shape.
Liverpool settled on a strategy of defense and counter-attacking, which kept the game 0-0 for a while. But in the 26th minute, B’ville went ahead 1-0 when, off the rebound of a free kick, Mike Guardino fed it to the middle and, when goalie Joe Gilbert could not handle, Jon Price put in the goal.
But the real blow came just seconds before halftime, when Ben Ramin (who had both goals in the previous meeting) took a pass from Jack Jeffery and fit a shot between his legs past Gilbert to make it 2-0. Ramin scored again just 1:33 into the second half, and the Warriors would never recover.
The Warriors earned its trip to B’ville (or Fulton, as it turned out) in a hard-fought opening-round game against no. 10 seed Utica Proctor last Wednesday night, which turned into a 1-0 decision.
Steadily, Liverpool attacked Proctor, waiting for a chance to go in front. It did so at the midway point of the first half, when Akinniyi Akinpelu passed to Leo Rubio near the net – and Rubio beat Adnan Pajzeteovic for the goal.
Though the Raiders would not allow anything more, it could not catch up, either. For the rest of the night, Liverpool’s improving defense slammed shut any Proctor charge, and Gilbert only had to make four saves for the shutout.
