It only figured that, to complete an undefeated regular season, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys soccer team would have, as the final hurdle, the side most responsible for keeping them from Section III Class AA glory during the last half-decade.
And it only seemed appropriate, too, that the Hornets prevailed, 1-0, over Baldwinsville last Friday night at Swan Pond in the most tense, dramatic way imaginable, getting a goal in the final minute of regulation for the second time that week.
All season long, F-M and B’ville, winner of five of the last six sectional titles, had eyed each other from afar, and while the Bees’ 11-3-1 mark didn’t jump out, it was playing its best soccer of the season and wanted nothing more than to put the lone blemish on the Hornets’ regular season.
And for most of the 80 minutes of regulation, it remained a stalemate. B’ville had a fair number of chances, only to get turned back by a stingy F-M defense working toward its 11th shutout this fall, Ben Obrist recording six saves.
For its part, the Hornets patiently waited for opportunities of its own, and got plenty of them against B’ville’s defense, but got thwarted most of the way, seeing eight direct shots snapped up by Bees goalie Nick Lindovski.
Then, almost like a script, F-M put up one more attack as regulation time ticked down. Tysen Tresness drew B’ville players toward him, and then passed to Jules Ngadula, who with 37 seconds left slid a shot past Lindovski.
Moments later, the final horn sounded, and F-M players and fans celebrated a rare feat – the first undefeated, untied regular season in head coach Jeff Hammond’s long and storied tenure.
The Hornets almost didn’t make it back to Swan Pond undefeated. Henninger was superb in last Tuesday’s game at Sunnycrest Field, forcing F-M to make a furious rally to pull out a 2-1 victory.
With the wind behind them, Henninger grabbed a 1-0 first-half lead as Abdi Abdirashad scored off a feed from Mohammed Dafe. Meanwhile, when the Hornets attacked, Black Knights goalie Prem Siwahoti turned them, eventually earning 12 saves.
F-M kept building up pressure, though, and tied it 1-1 in the second half on a goal by Tresness. Henninger reclaimed its defensive footing, and were on the brink of sending it to overtime when, with 34 seconds left, Tresness flashed open again and beat Siwahoti for the game-winning goal.
It marked the fourth time this season that the Hornets had scored either late in regulation or overtime, something it badly wanted to avoid against B’ville. Yet the same thing happened again – to the ultimate delight of the Hornets’ faithful.
Plenty of tension surrounded the F-M girls soccer team’s regular-season homestretch, since it was not yet assured of a sectional playoff berth.
Following an exhausting 1-1 draw with West Genesee at Swan Pond on Oct. 11, the Hornets were back at the high school Field Turf for last Tuesday’s clash with Liverpool, which again was a tie – this one of the 0-0 variety.
F-M would get a fair amount of opportunities, but the high winds, combined with the artificial surface, caused both teams to have problems controlling the ball.
It took Liverpool goalie Erin Brinley recording seven saves for the Warriors to preserve its end of the shutout, while the Hornets allowed nothing to get past the Hornets’ tandem of Haley Everding and Caroline Rabe.
As it turned out, F-M did make it into the AA sectional bracket as the no. 7 seed, where it would face no. 2 seed Baldwinsville in the quarterfinals, the winner to get Liverpool or Auburn in next week’s semifinal round.
And that top seed for the boys Hornets means a Friday-night AA quarterfinal at Swan Pond against the survivor of Wednesday’s playoff opener between no. 8 seed Liverpool and no. 9 seed West Genesee.
