Two games, more than two hours on the turf, and still the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool field hockey teams had not separated from each other one bit.

So the rivals would go to overtime again in last Thursday night’s showdown at LHS Stadium, and it was the Northstars, thanks to Elise Towers, that pulled it out, 1-0, clinching the CNY Counties League regular-season championship in the process.

They had played just nine days earlier at Bragman Stadium, a contest that went through two overtime periods without resolution after C-NS and Liverpool tied 1-1 in regulation.

Now came the rematch, taking place on Liverpool’s Senior Night where the likes of Emma Lamison, Emily Burns, Kristin Hinkey, Jen Ryan, Audra Adams and Corinna Castiglia were honored for their contributions.

High emotion, and high stakes, created for a tense game from the start. Through a scoreless first half, neither side broke through, though the Warriors’ pressure forced a series of penalty corners that it could not convert.

That early pattern carried over into the second half, too. Liverpool, in all, earned 14 penalty corners, but the C-NS defense kept turning away chance after chance, not putting too much of a burden on goalie Hannah White, who made just four saves.

For her part, Liverpool goalie Megan Evangelista also had four saves. But during the seven-on-seven OT period, the Northstars pushed once more – and off a scramble in front of the net, Towers struck a shot past Evangelista that found the cage and ended it.