Even though it enjoyed the better regular season, it was entirely possible that the Liverpool field hockey team was not gaining the same amount of momentum that its neighbors and rivals from Cicero-North Syracuse was picking up as the Section III playoffs neared.
Or at least that was the case until the Northstars got shut down in last Wednesday night’s game against visiting Baldwinsville at Bragman Stadium, unable to get on the board in a 1-0 defeat to the Bees.
Already, C-NS owned a win over B’ville by a 2-1 margin on Sept. 24, and that was on the Bees’ less familiar grass field. Now, at home, the Northstars went after more, and enjoyed most of the scoring chances in the first half without breaking through.
That remained the case in the second half, with Bees goalie Abigail Timmins working her way to six saves. Meanwhile, C-NS had to worry about fewer attacks, but with 5:13 left in regulation, Chloe Lynch took a pass from Amanda Strenk and sent a shot past Julia Lantry that proved to be the game-winner.
All of this followed Liverpool’s visit to Fayetteville-Manlius last Tuesday night. Any hopes that the Warriors had for the CNY Counties League regular-season title hinged on winning this game, but the Hornets used a big first half to gain control, and held on to beat the Warriors in yet another 2-1 decision.
They had first played Sept. 21 at LHS Stadium, and it ended in a 2-2 tie. Since then, F-M had amassed a five-game win streak and, by doing so, zoomed to the top of the CNYCL standings, but had not yet locked up first place. 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.
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 Claire Gaynor’s second-half goal, assisted by Kelly Bergamo, but could earn nothing more against Hornets goalie Caroline Baril, who had six saves.
Liverpool returned home Friday to face Holland Patent and got a much-needed 3-0 victory over the Golden Knights. The Warriors grabbed a 2-0 edge by halftime and cruised the rest of the way, seeing Bergano and Gaynor each earn a goal and assist as Bri Socker also converted. HP goalie Joelle Friermuth prevented worse, earning seven saves.
In its own non-league game on Friday, C-NS got past Vernon-Verona-Sherrill 1-0, fighting through tough conditions to climb to the .500 mark at 7-7-1, while Liverpool owned an 8-4-2 record.
This meant that C-NS had the no. 4 seed for the five-team sectional Class A tournament and had to beat no. 5 seed Rome Free Academy Wednesday night at Bragman Stadium to advance to next Monday’s semifinal against top seed F-M at LHS Stadium, where Liverpool, the no. 2 seed, faces no. 3 seed Baldwinsville in the other semifinal.
