Going into the last week of the regular season with a 3-8-1 record, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls soccer team knew it needed a quick finish if it wanted to be a part of the Section III Class AA playoffs.
The Hornets hosted Rochester Aquinas last Monday afternoon and emerged from it with a 1-1draw, erasing a 1-0 deficit when Cady Barns converted in the second half off a feed from Rachel Dobricki. Neither team would scored in the 20 minutes of overtime as Sabrina Suriani finished with seven saves.
A day later, F-M hosted Cicero-North Syracuse, and again it would go beyond regulation, but despite all of the hard work, the Hornets, in the last 90 seconds of the second overtime, managed to pull out a 1-0 victory that completed a regular-season sweep of the Northstars.
When they met Sept. 22 at Archie Hall Stadium, F-M pulled it out, 2-1, a game that proved a turning point in a season spiraling downward. Now, in the rematch, 80 minutes of regulation would pass without a goal, as would the first 10 minutes of overtime, Siriani eventually getting nine saves.
In the second OT, though, the Hornets’ patience was rewarded. With just 1:22 left, Dobricki, who had assisted on the lone goal against Aquinas, took a pass from Anna Hartzheim and slipped it past C-NS goalie Olivia Haven, who before that point had recorded 12 saves.
It all led to Saturday’s game against Rome Free Academy, where the Hornets prevailed again, this time in a 2-0 shutout where a goal in each half proved enough. Hartzheim scored again, as did Dobricki, with Cady Barns picking up an assist.
F-M ended up with a no. 5 seed in an eight-team sectional Class AA bracket, with a quarterfinal set for Thursday at 6:30 at Camillus against no. 4 seed West Genesee, The winner would likely take a shot at 15-0-1 top seed Baldwinsville in next week’s semifinals.
Manlius-Pebble Hill and Bishop Grimes would conclude the regular season facing each other last Thursday afternoon, the contest bleeding into overtime before the Trojans, led by Maja Cannavo, gained control and put away the Cobras 2-0.
It marked the second time this fall MPH had blanked Grimes, having done so by a 1-0 margin on Sept. 13. Exactly one month later, they went through regulation 0-0, MPH probing and getting twice as many chances as Grimes, only to see Marissa Curtis turn them away, gathering up eight saves.
But in the first OT period, Cannavo would twice put shots past Curtis, with Bianca Melendez Martineau assisting on one of the goals. Grimes could not answer, held to four shots all afternoon.
Before this, MPH got a test last Tuesday when it visited state Class C no. 8-ranked Bishop Ludden last Thursday afternoon. Try as it could, the Trojans could not get on the board in a 3-0 defeat to the Gaelic Knights.
When they first met Sept. 16, MPH kept it close, but Ludden pulled it out, 2-1. The rematch had the Gaelic Knights up 2-0 by halftime as Emma Driscoll took out the Trojans nearly by herself, earning two goals and one assist on Olivia Boyea’s tally. Meanwhile, Ludden’s defense had to work hard all game to preserve the shutout, Kara Beamish finishing with 13 saves as Sarah Smith got 12 saves.
This followed a game against Onondaga last Monday where MPH prevailed, 2-1, by scoring twice in the first half, one each by Lisa Morocco and Maggie Sexton-Dwyer, with Manal El-Hindi adding an assist. Though the Tigers got within one on Alyssa Myer’s second-half goal, Sarah Smith stopped everything else and finished with six saves.
Grimes went from there to a 3-1 defeat to Onondaga on Friday afternoon, which concluded the Cobras’ season with a 4-12 record.
Yet the fact that it faced Class C teams all year meant that Grimes still had a sectional Class D playoff spot waiting for them. As the no. 14 seed, the Cobras meets no. 3 seed LaFargeville in Tuesday’s opening round, with the winner going to the quarterfinals against West Canada Valley or McGraw.
MPH also moved down to Class D for its sectional run, but got the no. 4 seed and a first-round home game Tuesday against no. 13 seed Stockbridge Valley, looking to advance to a quarterfinal against Cincinnatus or Remsen.
