Buoyed by a late-season win streak and consistent, solid performances against all of its league rivals, the Fayetteville-Manlius field hockey team secured both the CNY Counties League regular-season championship and the top seed for the Section III Class A playoffs.
The Hornets had already won four in a row prior to last Tuesday’s match against visiting Liverpool, and played a strong first half against the Warriors, which proved enough to earn a 2-1 victory that clinched first place in the league standings.
They had first played Sept. 21 at LHS Stadium, and it ended in a 2-2 tie. Since then, F-M had taken over first place, but had not yet locked it up. Only a win over the Warriors would accomplish that feat.
Aggressive from the outset, the Hornets turned that aggression into scoring opportunities – and converted twice, seeing Kathryn Colone assist on goals by Sophie Craig and Megan Josephson.
Liverpool goalie Katie Yudin stopped everything else from that point forward and finished with six saves. With time enough to rally, Liverpool did cut its 2-0 deficit in half with Maggie Gaynor’s second-half goal, assisted by Kelly Bergamo, but could earn nothing more against Hornets goalie Caroline Baril, who had six saves.
Continuing to test itself, F-M closed the regular season by hosting defending sectional Class B champion Camden on Thursday night, and it kept pace. Only the excellence of Alyssa Curtis kept the Hornets from another big win as it fell, 3-2, to the Blue Devils.
During a superb first half, F-M roared out to a 2-0 lead, just as it had against Liverpool, with Craig and Christine Carter-Huffman earning the goals and Baril sensational in the net, eventually piling up 20 saves. ‘
All by herself, Curtis turned it around in the second half, twice finding the net to give her 37 goals for the season, and assisting on the other Camden goal, by Kennedy Steria. And that proved enough as Camden improved to 14-2.
East Syracuse Minoa, coming off an 8-0 defeat to Cazenovia on Oct. 9, is one of Camden’s challengers in the sectional Class B tournament, and goes into that event off a pair of lopsided victories.
In last Wednesday’s game against Homer, the Spartans got a hat trick from Katina Shiomos as it defeated the Trojans 5-1. ESM decided matters in the first half, leading 3-0 by the break. Shiomos had much to do with it, and didn’t let up until she had scored three times to complement single goals from Emma Schafer and Lindsey Russell. Meagan Thomas and Sophie Zacharek joined Schafer in the assist column.
Closing the regular season one night later, ESM visited Cortland and, getting to a 7-8-1 mark, defeated the Purple Tigers 6-0. Shiomos didn’t score, but Schafer and Russell each found the net twice, while Thomas and Lauren Benmink earned single goals. Samantha Short got credit for an assist.
ESM, as the no. 5 seed in a seven-team Class B sectional field, meets no. 4 seed Whitesboro Wednesday at 3 p.m. to see who plays top seed Camden in Sunday’s semifinals at LHS Stadium.
F-M, basking in the top seed in Class A, waits until next Monday at 5:30 to go to that same Liverpool turf for a sectional semifinal against the winner of Wednesday’s game between no.4 seed Cicero-North Syracuse and no. 5 seed Rome Free Academy. Liverpool and Baldwinsville will meet in the other semifinal.
