Ever since the strange, 11-against-nine defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse on Sept. 3, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys soccer team had rampaged through foes, working toward the top of the CNY Counties League.
It all led to a big showdown Saturday night at Swan Pond, where the Hornets welcomed 6-0-1 Baldwinsville with first place in the league standings at stake. And they played a game worthy of the event, with two different comebacks, one by each team, and a dramatic ending in double overtime where F-M pulled it out, 3-2.
Even with a large home crowd on hand to spur them on, the Hornets couldn’t keep B’ville from netting the first goal of the evening in the 11th minute. It stayed that way until Joe Falcone tied it in the 34th minute and, with less than two minutes left in the half, Seth Eppling converted, putting F-M in front, 2-1.
For the first time all season, B’ville stared at a deficit, but still fought back to get even, 2-2, with less than 14 minutes left in regulation. The goals by Brandon Mimas and Steve Jensen broke F-M’s shutout streak and set up overtime as Mike Brussel got credit for an assist.
Through one 10-minute OT period, it remained unresolved. But with 6:26 left in the second OT, another Hornets attack proved successful, Ryan Varley passing it to Hunter Knutsen, who put home the game-winner and handed the Bees its first defeat of the season. The two sides meet again Oct. 8 at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
The week started when Nottingham came to Swan Pond last Monday and could not do too much as F-M roared to a 4-0 victory. Barely 13 minutes into the game, Falcone fed Mahr, for the game’s first goal. Less than 10 minutes later, Falcone again used his deft passing to set up Hunter Knutsen for the goal that made it 2-0, where it stood at halftime.
Even with that, Falcone wasn’t content, taking his own turn with a superb shot that found the net early in the second half. Mahr converted a penalty kick to give F-M its final margin.
Two nights later, the Hornets went to Sunnycrest Field to take on Henninger and its shutout streak would continue, though by a more modest 2-0 margin.
One goal in each half proved sufficient as Falcone and Max Staniec both found the net, with Nolan Chiles contributing an assist. Henninger had its share of chances, but Mike Barji played well in goal, stopping all eight shots he faced.
Not so long ago, Bishop Grimes looked up at Manlius-Pebble Hill in terms of boys soccer accomplishments, but the early returns of 2016 indicated that the Cobras were in the far stronger position.
Proof of this would come last Friday afternoon, when Grimes and MPH squared off and the Cobras prevailed, 2-1, It would require a comeback, since the Trojans struck first on a goal by Grant Lewis, assisted by Josh Hapko.
Grimes wasn’t behind for long, tying it 1-1 as Zach Schell, on his birthday, netted the equalizer. Then, when MPH goalie Stew Falso couldn’t smother David Mo’s shot, Connor Alexander put home the rebound, and the Cobras were in front before halftime.
Falso finished with five saves and the Trojans managed a second-half shutout. However, its attacks proved too infrequent, Grimes holding MPH to just two shots.
Before this, both teams played twice, but Grimes had the easier of the two slates, starting with last Monday’s game against visiting Tyburn Academy where it tore through the first 40 minutes and beat the Crusaders 5-0.
All five of the Cobras’ goals came in the first half,. Only Kyle O’Connor scored twice, while single goals went to Alexander, Jake Zona and Deng Mawien. Schell recorded two assists and T.J. Bradford also had an assist to go with three saves in the net as he split duties in goal with Ian Denton, who had five saves to preserve Grimes’ shutout.
Faith Heritage was expected to give the Cobras a tougher test on Wednesday afternoon and did so, bolting out to a two-goal lead. But a spirited comeback, capped by a surprising hero, helped Grimes beat the Saints 3-2.
Even though Grimes spent most of the first half in Faith’s end, it didn’t convert, and counter-attacks led to goals by Saints teammates Zack Beckhusen and Parker Bowden.
Not expecting to trail 2-0 at intermission, Grimes stuck to its plan and it paid off when, after the break, Mawien and Alexander brought Grimes back, Mawien scoring off Alexander’s feed midway through the second half, and Mawein setting up Alexander’s game-tying header with 15 minutes left.
This sent the game to overtime. There, Paul Kim, newly called up from the JV ranks, got in the correct position and beat Faith goalie David Buff for the game-winner.
At the same time, MPH had taken a pair of defeats, falling 2-1 to Tully last Monday night. They played through a scoreless first half before Sam Goldman scored for the Trojans, only to have it negated by goals from the Black Knights’ duo of Evan Rapp and Danny Gambell. Goalie Joe Crawford stopped eight of the nine MPH shots he faced.
Then, in last Wednesday’s game at Fabius-Pompey, the Trojans lost to the Falcons 3-0, a result made more frustrating by the fact that, again it was 0-0 through 40 minutes. Like Tully before them, F-P did all of the damage to MPH in the second half as Jameson Andrews scored twice and Riley McEwen had the other goal, negating six saves by Falso.
