Kim Murphy and her Liverpool girls soccer teammates were not happy – and Fayetteville-Manlius paid for that unhappiness.
The no. 2 seed Warriors ripped past the no. 7 seed Hornets 6-0 in Thursday night’s Section III Class AA quarterfinal at LHS Stadium, fueled by Murphy’s superb effort as she finished with three goals and two assists.
In truth, though, the seeds for this effort were planted five days earlier, in the Oct. 22 regular-season finale, when Liverpool lost at home to Cicero-North Syracuse 2-1.
That defeat may have contributed to the Warriors having the no. 2 seed, instead of the top seed that went to defending champion Baldwinsville, who went 0-1-1 against Liverpool in the regular season.
Regardless of the seed, the bottom line was that Liverpool had let down, and knew it could not afford to do so again in a single-elimination tournament, even against an F-M team it had beaten twice (by scores of 3-1 and 2-1) in a two-week span in September.
The tone was set when Julia Heberger crashed a hard shot off the left post 3:10 into the game. About 10 minutes later, Murphy, whose free kick had just hit the side of the net, went to the middle and belted a 30-yard shot just inside the crossbar, which F-M goalie Nina Quigley had no chance to stop.
Liverpool kept applying pressure, and in the 33rd minute Murphy struck again, feeding sophomore Emma Geyer, whose curving shot found the top of the net, making it 2-0, where it stood at halftime.
Less than nine minutes into the second half, Murphy’s corner kick found a crowd in front of Quigley, and amid it Kayla Whalen poked the ball home. Not even two minutes later, off an F-M turnover, Murphy converted her second goal and the margin had doubled to 4-0.
Still not finished, the Warriors saw Geger convert her second goal with 12:33 left, and just to be sure Murphy returned 2:28 later to finish off her hat trick.
Liverpool (15-2-1) now faces no. 6 seed West Genesee (14-3) in the Class AA semifinal, the Wildcats having eliminated no. 3 seed Watertown 3-1 in its quarterfinal behind Melissa Fumano’s pair of goals. The Warriors beat WG 3-0 back on Sept. 13.
