Aside from the winning, which is nice, it’s the way the Fayetteville-Manlius boys soccer team is claiming these victories that is grabbing a lot of attention.
For the second time in less than a week, the Hornets pulled out a 1-0 victory right at the wire, this time doing so in last Wednesday’s game against Cicero-North Syracuse at Gillette Field.
Four days earlier, on Sept. 13, Hornets claimed a dramatic 1-0 victory over CBA in the “Red Out” game at Swan Pond on Dante Pavone’s last-second goal.
Even more work would be required at C-NS, for in this game 80 minutes settled nothing between the Hornets and Northstars, leaving the game 0-0. And much of the 20 minutes of overtime passed without a resolution, either.
But just when it looked like the C-NS defense would get the shutout, F-M attacked once more and, with 25 seconds left in the second OT period, Anthony Kousmanidis slid a shot past Northstars goalie Matt Siegel to win it.
Looking ahead to the C-NS game may have created the potential for a letdown in last Monday’s game against Henninger, but F-M, no. 8 in the first state Class AA rankings of the season, would have none of it, ably taking the Black Knights apart as it prevailed by a 4-0 margin.
Almost picking up where he left off with CBA, Pavone scored on another header just 2:13 into the game. And the next shot that Pavone took also found the net, meaning that he had personally delivered a 2-0 Hornets halftime lead.
Henninger could not stop Pavone, who completed his hat trick early in the second half and then watched as Oren Hochstein tacked on a late goal. Tysen Tresness, Julian Razmjou and Dan Obrist each got credited with assists.
The F-M girls soccer team, still short-handed and playing for the fourth time in seven days, struggled in last Monday night’s home game against Auburn, falling to the Maroons 2-0.
Not only was the schedule crowded, but the Hornets had gone to double overtime in both of its previous games, tying Cicero-North Syracuse 0-0 on Sept. 11 and CBA 1-1 on Sept. 13.
Sensing this, Auburn, who had played just once the previous 12 days and had far less injury issues, used its reserve energy to run right at F-M, and it worked.
Michaela Breeze scored in the first half, and did so again in the second half, while a stingy Maroons defense limited the Hornets to just three shots all night.
While F-M’s boys were undergoing its overtime drama at C-NS, the girls Hornets, badly needing a win of its own, got it on home turf, topping the combined Syracuse city squad 4-0.
Two scoring plays in each half was more than enough for the Hornets, who saw Jamison Seabury return and make an impact with a pair of goals. Sarah Olick-Sutphen added two assists, with Lizzie Hall and Alexandra Vinci adding the other goals. Mirren Galway also had an assist.
This put the Hornets at 2-4-2 at the midway point of the regular season, but it returned to the win column Saturday, getting all of its offense early against New Hartford in a 3-0 shutout of the Spartans.
By halftime, F-M already had its three-goal margin, with Olick-Sutphen notching two of those goals and Jamison Seabury getting the other. Quinn Bessetta and Ani Villalba each had one assist.
