Someone will emerge as the new Section III Class AA boys soccer champion, and Liverpool might be in the best position to claim that crown.
As the top seed in the AA bracket, the Warriors had everything go right in Thursday night’s quarterfinal round, even beyond the fact that it eliminated no. 8 seed Rome Free Academy 4-0 at LHS Stadium.
While that was going on, Baldwinsville, who won or shared the last five sectional titles and made it to the state tournament every year from 2007 to 2011, saw its reign come to an end, the no. 4 seed Bees knocked out by no. 5 seed Utica Proctor in a 2-1 decision.
This means the Warriors are going to face the Raiders in the AA semifinal early next week, with the winner advancing to the championship game against Cicero-North Syracuse or Fayetteville-Manlius.
None of this would have mattered had the Warriors not taken care of RFA, who played in the Tri-Valley League (mostly Class A competition) and went 10-5-1 in the regular season before eliminating Henninger 2-1 in last Tuesday’s opening round.
It helped, perhaps, that Liverpool remembered that it lost on its home field last year in this same round of the playoffs to C-NS. Properly motivated, the Warriors jumped all over the Black Knights, grabbing a 3-0 lead by halftime.
Nick Zingaro, with two goals, and Joe Sheehan, with one goal and one assist, led Liverpool’s efforts. Joe Pugh earned the other goal as Owen Thompson contributed an assist. The Warriors’ defense held RFA to a handful of shots.
