After the Liverpool girls soccer team edged past Cicero-North Syracuse 1-0 on Sept. 25, both sides would remain busy, and both would succeed.
When it hosted West Genesee Thursday night, the Warriors controlled the flow of play more than the second straight 1-0 margin would suggest.
All through the first half, Ore Akinpelu kept breaking open, earning a handful of good scoring chances, but constantly getting turned away. Liverpool could not exploit the presence of WG’s second-string goalie, Angela Ponto (in for Andrea Francisco), who finished with 13 saves.
Steadily, the Warriors kept adding to that pressure in the second half, and it finally paid off in the 53rd minute, a series of chances around WG’s net that culminated when Kyla Bills, just as she had done in the C-NS game, put in the go-ahead goal, this time off a feed from Breanna Sharpe.
WG never put up a serious threat in the remaining 26-plus minutes, as goalie Rebecca Phillips-Allen only had to make five saves.
Now both Liverpool and C-NS went to the former Hall of Fame complex in Oneonta for a pair of weekend games, and both would go 2-0 there.
On Saturday, the Warriors blanked Owego 3-0, led by Sharpe, who picked up one goal and one assist. Emma Geyer and Morgan Wright also scored as Bills and Alyssa Bittel picked up assists.
Meanwhile, C-NS knocked off Oneonta 1-0, the game scoreless until Marissa Rio, off a feed from Ally Falinski, put home the only goal in the second half. Alyssa Jim stopped all five shots she faced.
When they switched opponents on Sunday, C-NS broke out in a 7-0 romp of Owego.
Or, more accurately, Kate Wagner broke out as she set a career mark with four goals, most of them in the second half. Rio, Hanna Haven and Emily Amato scored, too, with Chloe Lonergan and Hannah Szumloz adding assists.
In stark contrast, Liverpool’s game with Oneonta, the no.2-ranked Class B team in the state, featured a big second-half comeback that allowed the Warriors to prevail 4-3.
Trailing 2-1 after 40 minutes, the Warriors rallied behind Akinpelu, whose runs to the net led to two goals and one assist. Sharpe added one goal and one assist, while Geyer also found the net. Bittel and Alexis Kline earned assists. Each of Phillips-Allen’s nine saves proved important as the Warriors won for the fourth time in six days.
