Newly energized in the wake of shutting out long-time tormentor Baldwinsville on Oct. 5, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys soccer team charged into the regular-season homestretch, only to get slowed up again.
That was mostly due to Liverpool, who came to the Hornets’ home turf last Thursday night and prevailed in a 1-0 match, the first of two encounters between the prime Class AA contenders in a six-day span.
Neither side would have full control of the match, taking equal amounts of shots and having about the same amount of quality scoring opportunities.
The difference was that Liverpool converted early, with Joe Sheehan getting an unassisted goal. And F-M could not answer, despite a lot of charges in the latter stages, the two sides knowing a rematch was close at hand. Hornets goalie Jim Brady made five saves, the same total as Warriors counterpart Cody Peck.
By contrast, the Hornets enjoyed last Tuesday night’s game against Oswego, doing whatever it wanted on the offensive end in a 12-1 destruction of the Buccaneers.
Scoring six times in each half, F-M got points from 13 different players, more than half the roster, which included a three-goal hat trick from Brendan Murray.
Aaron Epling and Luis Suatoni each scored twice, while Tyler Snow and Noah Welker both had one goal and one assist. Connor Treglia, Dante Pavone and Colby Tressnes had the other goals as Tysen Tresnes and Joe Amato earned two assists apiece. Simon Myhill and Jack Goodfellow earned single assists.
But F-M stumbled again Saturday in a 2-0 defeat to East Syracuse-Minoa, a game where it was scoreless until the second half, when Chris Schiavone and Jarrett Temple both scored for the Spartans, negating Brady’s 10-save effort. The Hornets’ record fell to 9-4-1.
At that same time, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls soccer team was also moving backwards.
Right after falling to Cicero-North Syracuse 4-2 on Oct. 4, the Hornets had a chance to rebound in last Tuesday’s game at defending Class AA champion Liverpool, but it could not do so, taking a 3-1 defeat to the Warriors.
Liverpool is far removed from the side F-M defeated back on Sept. 11, having shored up its defense and also gained ground on its attack by surrounding star sophomore Ore Akinpelu with more options.
Both were on display against F-M, as the Hornets fell behind 1-0 at halftime. Despite a goal by Sarah Olick-Sutphen, fed by Frankie Bowyer, in the late going, F-M could only watch as Liverpool got clear behind goals by Akinpelu, Emma Geyer and Alyssa Bittel.
This made it more important for the Hornets to beat West Genesee and Oswego in the last week of the regular season, just as the F-M boys dealt with the Liverpool rematch and a trip to Corcoran.
