Perhaps offering the strongest signal yet that it was back in the realm of elite Section III Class AA sides, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls soccer team won both of its matches over top visiting Section I opponents during the Baldwinsville Kickoff Tournament.
Even though the Bees were the tournament hosts, the first two games were played last Friday at Archie Hall Stadium, with the Northstars taking on Arlington and the Bees playing John Jay.
Both sides won, as C-NS blanked Arlington 2-0 and B’ville took care of John Jay 2-1. In the Northstars’ effort, it was patient on the attack, scoring once in each half as Hanna Haven and Kate Wagner converted, and defensively strong, shutting down the Admirals thanks to Alyssa Jim’s eight saves.
When the scene shifted to B’ville’s Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium on Saturday, the host Bees blew a 3-1 halftime lead to that same Arlington side and lost 5-3, but C-NS remained on a steady course, repeating its work from the day before and blanking John Jay by that same 2-0 margin.
Early on, the show belonged to Ariah Rosas, who twice broke through John Jay’s defenses and put in goals during the first half. That was all the Northstars needed as, again, the defense snuffed out the visitors’ hopes and Jay stopped all six shots she faced.
As this was going on, Liverpool had a different result against an out-of-town opponent, falling 2-1 to Rochester Mercy. The Warriors’ only goal came in the first half, but Mercy inched in front in the second half and stayed there.
The common thread for both Liverpool and C-NS this week is that they both have to travel to face Fayetteville-Manlius – the Warriors on Tuesday night, the Northstars on Thursday night.
