With the way it has played in the latter stretches of the regular season, the Liverpool boys soccer team has made itself dangerous for any possible foe in the Section III Class AA playoffs.
Further proof arrived Thursday night, against fellow playoff qualifier West Genesee. With an attack that only seemed to improve as the game went along, the Warriors put together a 6-0 victory over the Wildcats.
It was Senior Night for 12 graduating Liverpool players. Every one of them started, including goalkeeper Kevin Dombrosky, who played the first half before Karl Miller returned for the second half.
Dombrosky handled all the chances he faced, and just before the regular starters showed up in the 16th minute, Mike D’Agostino scored off a feed from Mike Schneider.
It got to 2-0 when Joe Sheehan converted on a hard shot in the 26th minute. But the real outburst took place late in the second half, when sophomore Nick Zingaro hit on back-to-back goals. After that, D’Agostino got a second goal and Schneider crushed a shot home with 1:11 left.
In last Monday’s game at Rome Free Academy, the Warriors shook off a rough start and, with a big second half, took out the Black Knights 4-1.
Neither side would get a goal until the second half. But Liverpool proceeded to put things away with Leo Rubio at the helm, as he scored twice in the latter stages.
Sheehan (whose pair of goals beat Cicero-North Syracuse on Oct. 14) and Taylor Groginski also converted, while Schneider and Bojan Atanasovski earned assists.
CNS, struggling through its regular-season homestretch, went to Utica Proctor last Tuesday and took a 1-0 defeat to the Raiders.
Almir Tricic, off a feed from Mohammed Haji, scored in the first half for Proctor. And that single goal held up the rest of the way because Raiders goalie Refik Begic was sensational, turning back all of the Northstars’ 15 shots.
Two days later, the Northstars romped past Corcoran 9-0, finally giving head coach Mike McCaffery his 300th career win after a couple of stumbles.
It was 6-0 by halftime, and eight different players contributed goals. David Scorzelli found the net twice as Drake Garner, Rob Spenard, Anthony Barraco, Will Rose, Conner Young, Tyler DiScenza and Tim Hahn also scored. Darren Cooper and Tom Bartyzel each had two assists. Kevin Powers had an assist, too.
Now there’s a chance CNS could meet Liverpool in the Class AA sectional quarterfinals. If the no. 6 seed Northstars get past no. 11 seed Rome Free Academy in Wednesday’s opening round, it gets the no. 3 seed Warriors in the quarterfinals.
