A pair of victories, attained in very different manners, has the Cicero-North Syracuse field hockey team well-placed as the team to beat in the Section III Class A playoffs.
When C-NS held Senior Night at Bragman Stadium last Tuesday night, it had no idea it would unleash one of its most productive efforts in team history during a 13-0 destruction of the Maroons.
Four seniors – forward Marie Aloi, midfielder Megan Caveny and defenders McKenna Burgwin and Shannon Dengos – were honored prior to the game, and that provided some motivation.
But so did the anger bout the Northstars blowing a late lead and falling to Class C Holland Patent 3-3 on Oct. 11, which ended an eight-game win streak.
Thus, C-NS was merciless on Auburn, gaining a 5-0 edge by halftime and then adding eight more goals in the second half, an onslaught that included Aloi and Caveny each setting career marks, scoring five times apiece.
Taylor Lessard, Haley Florczyk and Cara Binaxas also found the net, with Burgwin getting two assists, the same total as Nessa McKie and Julia McDonough. Jamie Wagner, Allie Bartlett and Avery Beck earned one assist apiece.
On Thursday night, C-NS went east to face Rome Free Academy, and this game proved far more suspenseful – but it counted just the same in the win column, the Northstars edging the Black Knights 1-0.
Again, C-NS saw its seniors go to the forefront. Caveny’s first-half goal, assisted by Aloi, would prove enough, thanks to a defense that, anchored by Burgwin and Dengos, mostly kept RFA quiet, holding them to just two shots.
And this led to Saturday’s regular-season finale against Fayetteville-Manlius, the team C-NS lost to in last year’s sectional final – and who had just beaten Liverpool 1-0 on Wednesday night to give itself a bit of late-season momentum.
C-NS promptly halted that momentum, though, by blanking the Hornets 2-0. It was scoreless until the second half, when Julia Parody twice found herself open in front of F-M’s net and slipped shots past goalie Caroline Baril, negating her 13-save effort as the Northstars had the vast majority of the offensive opportunities.
Before all this, F-M had hosted Liverpool, and the Warriors had a reason to feel confident about its chances, having handled the Hornets 2-0 on Sept. 16 at LHS Stadium.
But F-M remembered that encounter, and unlike that game, where Liverpool scored twice in the first half and never looked back, it was the Hornets getting on the board first thanks to Sophie Craig’s unassisted goal.
To its credit, the Warriors turned back everything else F-M threw at them, Megan Evangelista finishing with nine saves. Yet Liverpool’s numerous attempts to pull even all got turned away, too, as Baril stopped all six shots she faced.
Liverpool had a non-league game at Whitesboro on Columbus Day, where it had little trouble putting together a 3-0 shutout over that other group of Warriors.
Were it not for Whitesboro goalie Breanna Langett’s 13 saves, it might have proved more lopsided. Kylie Tucker, Nikki Wilson and Kelly Bergamo had one goal apiece.
There might yet be a C-NS-Liverpool encounter at the end of the Section III Class A playoffs. As the top seed, the Northstars await a semifinal Saturday against no. 4 seed F-M or no. 5 seed Rome Free Academy, while the no. 3 seed Warriors play no. 2 seed Baldwinsville in the other semifinal Saturday at East Syracuse-Minoa at 4 p.m.
