What seemed so clear – that the Fayetteville-Manlius boys soccer team was a step or two above the rest of the Section III Class AA title contenders – wasn’t as clear once the regular season came to an end.

That was because the state Class AA no. 9-ranked Hornets, who bashed fellow contender Baldwinsville 5-0 on Oct. 8, promptly lost, 1-0, to Liverpool the next time it took the field last Friday night at LHS Stadium.

Still, the surprise of the result was minimized by the fact that Liverpool is a good team and had already shut down F-M once, surviving a 0-0 stalemate with the Hornets Sept. 20 at Swan Pond.

Here, the theme was the same, F-M shut out once more, but the difference was that the Warriors did get on the board in the first half, Justin Lombard getting the goal and Arlind Ramadani earning the assist.

For the rest of the game, Liverpool’s defense protected that one-goal margin, breaking up all of F-M’s attacks. Ben Bowers only had to make four saves, the same as Hornets counterpart Mike Baril.

Despite this, the Hornets still got the top seed for the sectional Class AA tournament, and on Thursday at 6:30 it will face the survivor of Tuesday’s opening-round game between no. 9 seed Christian Brothers Academy and no. 8 seed Auburn at Swan Pond.

Just before the sectional tournament, CBA played on Saturday and was impressive in a 3-0 shutout of Fulton, with all of the goals coming in the first half. Tom Daviau, Tobias Okongo and Benito Vlassis each got a goal and Ben McCreary added an assist as the Red Raiders applied lots of pressure, but Matt Buck stopped all 10 shots he faced.

East Syracuse Minoa would play Homer to a 1-1 draw last Tuesday night, as both goals came early in the second half. Martin Toszer scored for the Trojans, but David Neff answered for the Spartans with a goal assisted by Kyle Scalzo.

Through the rest of regulation, plus a pair of tense 10-minute overtime periods, neither side could resolve the issue. ESM had far more chances, though, with Homer goalie Cody Wagner having to make 10 saves, far less than Ryan Cacace’s total of four saves.

For its last regular-season test, ESM would go to the Rochester suburbs to face Pittsford Mendon, where it worked hard for a 2-1 victory. Both of the Spartans’ goals were scored by Samir Buljubasic in the first half, Scalzo assisting on one of them, and it held off Mendon late as Cacace had one of his finest efforts, stopping 13 of the 14 shots he faced.

So ESM had an 11-3-2 record to take into the sectional playoffs, where it would have the no. 1 seed and meet either no. 8 seed Central Valley Academy or no. 9 seed Oswego in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

If the brackets held, ESM and Jamesville-DeWitt, the no. 4 seed, would meet each other in the semifinals, though the Red Rams would first have to get through its own quarterfinal Thursday against no. 5 seed Fowler or no. 12 seed Camden.

Before all that, the Red Rams’ charge down the regular-season homestretch culminated Saturday with a 1-0 victory over Central Square, the only goal coming when Mike Potamianos converted, unassisted, in the first half. J-D’s defense held the Redhawks to just three shots all game.