Needing to reclaim its footing after back-to-back defeats to Baldwinsville and Cicero-North Syracuse, the Liverpool boys soccer team did so – but the Northstars were also strong, making a serious pursuit for CNY Counties League National division honors.
C-NS faced a real test in last Tuesday’s game against Nottingham, where a spectacular corner kick from Tom Bartyzel highlighted a late surge and a 3-1 victory over the Bulldogs.
Nottingham arrived at Gillette Field with an 8-3 record, and played the Northstars to a 0-0 first-half standstill, adding to the tension.
But C-NS broke through against the Bulldogs’ defense in the second half. The key to that surge was a corner kick where Bartyzel sent the ball on a perfect curve that fit inside the net without any help from a teammate.
Liam McDonnell and Tony Barraco earned the Northstars’ other goals, with Bryan Sibble contributing an assist. Pierrot Rutagarama had Nottingham’s lone goal, but Charlie Willard turned away everything else and finished with 10 saves.
C-NS was even better in Thursday night’s 5-0 shutout of West Genesee. Even though the Wildcats are having a down year, the Northstars were far from merciful, racing to a 2-0 halftime lead and doing even more after the break.
Bartyzel continued to dazzle, scoring twice and adding an assist, while Sibble managed one goal and two assists. Connor Young and Sam Mere had the other goals, with Barraco and Jon Runge each getting credit for an assist.
As for Liverpool, no big theatrics were required in its trip to Henninger on Tuesday – just an impressive all-around effort, especially in the second half, as it blanked the Black Knights 5-0.
Despite Henninger’s improvement, the Warriors battled its way in front 1-0 before the break, and then took over in the late going with a varied attack that saw eight different players earn points.
Nick Zingaro scored twice, while Bojan Atanasovski, Brandon Horton and Mike Alsid each had one goal. Leo Rubio gained a pair of assists as Joe Pugh, Mike Egan and Jordan Seymour also found their way to the assist column.
What followed would be two games in less than a week against Fayetteville-Manlius – and the Warriors, going on the road to F-M on Thursday night, emerged with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over the Hornets.
Perhaps knowing that a rematch would closely follow, the two sides played cautiously, rarely getting point-blank looks at the net.
The difference was that Liverpool got on the board with Joe Sheehan’s first-half goal, unassisted. From there, the Warriors’ defense did the rest, holding F-M to a handful of shots, Cody Peck only having to make five saves.
Aside from the F-M rematch, the Warriors also play Oswego and Nottingham in this last week of the regular season, while C-NS finishes with a Saturday visit to Baldwinsville, a fourth game in six days after playing Whitesboro, Corcoran and West Genesee.
