Even with the relative success it has found this fall, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys soccer team knows that it’s difficult to live up to the standard that the 2014 team, who won a Section III Class AA title and rose to the top of the state rankings, managed to set.
And no single game symbolized this dichotomy more than last Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at Swan Pond. On this exact same field nearly 12 months ago, F-M bashed the Warriors 6-0 in the opening round of the sectional tournament.
Now, though, Liverpool was 9-1-1, held the no. 7 state ranking, and proved that high standing against this version of F-M. Getting a goal in the first half took massive pressure off the Warriors, and it continued to hold the initiative most of the night, its defense limiting F-M to just three shots, all of them scooped by Ben Bowers.
Thus, goals by Jeff Meyers and Evan Vogue held up, and despite six saves from Mike Baril, the Hornets could not find much of a spark in the face of Liverpool’s pressure.
The loss to the Warriors followed F-M’s 2-1 victory over CBA on Oct. 3 at Alibrandi Stadium, and preceded another 2014 post-season rematch, this one with Baldwinsville, the team it beat in last fall’s sectional final, on Thursday night.
Going to Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium (which will soon have its well-used grass replaced by a Field Turf), the Hornets met Baldwinsville and met with a worse fate there, falling 3-0 to the resurgent Bees.
Few games between these two long-time foes atop the AA ranks were ever as lopsided, B’ville wasting little time as it grabbed a 2-0 lead by halftime and spent the entire evening bottling up the Hornets’ attack, Andrew Hahn stopping all six shots he faced.
Baril did all he could, earning 11 saves, but the Bees’ Alex Pompo nudged a couple of shots past him as Ben Kinslow earned the other goal. Evan Ingersoll and Justin Lado had one assist apiece.
East Syracuse Minoa, 4-7 going into the week, improved its playoff chances with last Monday’s 5-2 victory over Auburn, where Brad Hartung didn’t stop until he had notched a three-goal hat trick. Bajazit Boric and Kyle Scalzo added single tallies to help the Spartans pull away.
Just 24 hours later, ESM hosted Cortland, and led that match, too, but could not hold on, falling to the Purple Tigers 3-2 despite controlling the flow of play for most of the contest.
Hartung and Brad Neff netted first-half goals, giving the Spartans a 2-1 edge, but Cortland found the net twice in the second half and kept ESM from adding to its total thanks to goalie Curtis Wilk, who had 14 saves.
A third game in four nights loomed on Thursday when ESM took on Central Square. Moving back into the win column, the Spartans beat the Redhawks 3-1, breaking out of a 1-1 halftime tie as Cody Barbuto and Abdullah Mujcic put up goals.
Manlius-Pebble Hill, at the .500 mark (4-4-1) as the week got underway, struggled at home in last Monday’s 3-0 defeat to Blessed Virgin Mary.
Only trailing 1-0, the Trojans saw the Crusaders pull away late as Benedict Fullerton netted two of his team’s three goals. None of MPH’s eight shots got past BVM goalie Silvio Zallo as, on the other end, Zach Montas and Stewart Falso combined for eight saves.
It didn’t get better at Tully on Wednesday, even though MPH fought hard in a 2-1 loss to the Black Knights. Sam Goldman’s goal, assisted by Josh Annan, countered Jon Lippert’s tally and created a 1-1 halftime tie, but Lippert scored again in the second half, again assisted by Greg Voggel, and Tully held on, despite 11 combined saves from Montas and Falso.
Back-to-back games followed, MPH meeting Fabius-Pompey Friday and Bishop Ludden Saturday. Against the state-ranked Falcons, the Trojans lost, 4-1. Andrew Park scored in the second half, and MPH got 10 saves from Falso, but Fabius-Pompey still pulled away as John Larkin and Gabe Ray each had a goal and two assists.
When the Trojans faced Ludden, it was on the field for the fourth time in six days, and the wear showed in a 4-0 loss to the Gaelic Knights. Falso again shared net duties with Montas and they got 12 combined saves, but Ludden, up 1-0, pulled away in the second half as Tom Muller, John Saleski, Lucas Scutari and Eric Emmons earned the goals.
By contrast, Bishop Grimes won back-to-back weekend games, starting with Friday’s 2-0 shutout over Faith Heritage where goals by Noah Fiacchi and Mark Shattuck made the difference, with goalie Mark Delvecchio recording nine saves to keep the Saints out of the net.
Then, in Saturday’s 2-1 overtime win over Jordan-Elbridge, Grimes trailed, 1-0, before Zach Schell scored with 4:03 left in regulation. Carrying that momentum into the extra period, the Cobras won it when Shattuck sent one past Eagles goalie Max Bondgren. Fiacchi and Paul Cifonelli each got credited with assists as Grimes improved to 6-7 and inched closer to a playoff berth.
