In their own manners, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool field hockey teams had to take some stumbles before getting to their head-to-head showdowns in the latter part of the regular season.
For the Northstars, that meant going up against 10-time defending Section III Class C champion Cazenovia on the Lakers’ own turf at Burton Street Elementary and putting up quite a battle before falling 1-0 to the Lakers.
All game long, the C-NS defense had to work hard to keep things within reach. Cazenovia had a flurry of opportunities, much of them turned back as Northstars goalie Nina Trenca would make eight saves overall.
Just once, in the first half, did the Northstars defense crack, Janie Kempf taking a pass from Caeli Carroll and slipping it past Trenca. C-NS also would get some opportunities, only to run into a fierce Laker defense that held them to four shots, all stopped by Shea Flannery.
With no rest, C-NS returned home Tuesday night to face Class B contender Vernon-Verona-Sherrill and put together one of its best all-around efforts of the season on the way to a 5-1 victory over the Red Devils.
A quick start helped, the Northstars leading 2-0 by halftime and not letting up despite its cushion. Allie Bartlett and Jamie Wagner led the way, each of them scoring twice as Bartlett contributed a pair of assists. Bri Kehoe added a goal and Nessa McKie picked up an assist. Kirsten Oliver landed the lone VVS goal in the second half.
Now C-NS met another defending sectional champion, Fayetteville-Manlius (Class A), on Thursday night, and though it didn’t get a lot of opportunities, the fact that it cashed in twice during the first half made the difference in a 2-0 shutout of the Hornets.
For the night, the Northstars took only four shots, but two of them hit the target as Bartlett and Bailey Lazore earned those goals, with assists credited to Wagner and Abbey Szumloz.. The defense took over from there, F-M held to a mere three shots, all of them stopped by Nina Trenca.
Liverpool had its own issues, which surfaced before last Wednesday’s visit to the new Field Turf at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium to face an undefeated (7-0) Baldwinsville side to which it lost, 5-3, a couple of weeks ago.
Two days before it met the Bees, Liverpool lost at Weedsport 1-0, a match where it had most of the scoring opportunities and just could not put anything past Weedsport goalie Nicole Soutar, who finished with five saves.
Meanwhile, the Liverpool defense didn’t face too much pressure, but Weedsport took advantage of one of its few attacks when Tiama Kreydatus, off a feed from Jeslyn Files, put in the game’s only goal.
So now the Warriors headed to B’ville, and for a while made things very nervous for the Bees, even holding the lead, before things got away in the final minutes of a 4-1 defeat.
Energetic at the outset, Liverpool attacked hard and earned a series of chances, which paid off midway through the first half when Claire Gaynor, off a feed from Katrina Bragan, put it past Bees goalie Abigail Timmins.
Trailing for the first time all season, B’ville began to pick up its attack and then, off a penalty corner, caused a penalty stroke that Amanda Strenk converted with 2:52 left in the half.
With Timmins earning seven saves, the Bees kept the Warriors from moving back in front. Then, 10 minutes into the second half, Chloe Lynch netted the go-ahead goal for the hosts, adding another goal with 8:39 to play as Shylea Dukat also converted in the latter stages.
Liverpool recovered from this to earn a tough 2-1 victory over East Syracuse Minoa on Saturday afternoon, and for that it could thank Gaynor and Brittany Halpin, who were responsible for each of the goals, with Gaynor scoring and Halpin getting the assist.
That the Warriors didn’t get more was due to a tremendous performance by Spartans goalie Lily Palmer, who recorded 16 saves and got help when Samantha Wysocki netted a goal for ESM, though the Spartans couldn’t add to that total.
