While it was certain that the Cicero-North Syracuse girls soccer team gained a big victory when it topped Liverpool 1-0 in their lone regular-season encounter Thursday night at Archie Hall Stadium, it remained to be seen whether the win would prove costly.
Having already seen starters like Ariah Rosas and Stephanie Roberts miss time due to injury earlier this season, Northstars fans got nervous again when senior forward Hanna Haven was helped off the field late in the second half with an injured right knee.
It cast a shadow on an otherwise productive effort for C-NS, who was now in the heart of its regular-season schedule. The battle with Liverpool was the Northstars’ second of five consecutive home games in a nine-day span.
Having rolled past Syracuse 7-0 two nights earlier, with Haven scoring a three-goal hat trick, C-NS knew the challenge would prove much greater against a Liverpool side that had already proved, despite its relative youth (just three seniors on the roster), that it could regain the Section III Class AA crown it had in 2011 and ’12 before the Northstars grabbed it a year ago.
With its quick, deep group of forwards, C-NS put immediate pressure on Liverpool’s back line. Through the first portion of the first half, defenders Lynsey Roth, Claire Baluta and Logan Rubio did a tremendous job deflecting away shots before goalie Julia Richey could get them.
A sequence midway through the first half would prove decisive, though. In the 20th minute, Ore Akinpelu broke loose in front of the C-NS net with the Warriors’ first real scoring chance, but goalie Chloe Borasky made a diving stop.
Less than two minutes later, after picking up the ball, Richey tried to clear it out with a long kick, but Rosas, 20 yards in front of her, intercepted the pass, charged in alone and sent a low shot past a diving Richey into the left side of the net.
After that, the Warriors’ defense managed to keep C-NS contained, and made more big stops the rest of the way. However, Liverpool could not generate consistent pressure of its own, just the occasional run that Northstars defenders would read and shut down.
Mary Kate Ordway, Jessica Foley, Meghan Duffy and Chloe Lonergan anchored that effort, with Lonergan making a particularly good strip of Akinpelu when she made another deep run late in regulation.
With less than 16 minutes left, Haven, charging to the net, was hit in the right knee and went to the ground. Helped to the sideline, she was checked on and then briefly returned to the game, only to leave again and end the night with ice on that knee, her future status unknown.
