As the rain fell and the temperatures plummeted, the Liverpool girls soccer team could relax a bit, knowing it had advanced to the Section III Class AA semifinals without worrying about the wet conditions.
That’s because the no. 2 seed Warriors held its sectional quarterfinal game Wednesday night, against no. 7 seed Auburn, and proceeded to blast the Maroons 8-1.
Hours later, Liverpool found out that it wouldn’t get a third chance at defeating Cicero-North Syracuse because the no. 6 seed Northstars took a 2-1 overtime defeat to no. 3 seed Rome Free Academy. Thus, the Black Knights will face the Warriors in the sectional semifinals early next week as top-seeded Baldwinsville gets Fayetteville-Manlius in the other semifinal.
Liverpool took a 13-3 record into the post-season, while Auburn was 6-9-1, and that was done against mostly Class A foes in the OHSL Freedom division. Plus, the Warriors were focused again less than a week removed from a 1-0 home defeat to West Genesee.
It all translated into a first-half blitz where Liverpool sped out to a 6-0 lead on the Maroons. It was Lynsey Roth leading that charge, eventually producing a three-goal hat trick to go with an assist as Carli Kovarik scored twice.
Bri Kovarik joined Tia Moore and Morgan Mitchell in earning single goals. Brisa Salinas earned two assists, with Abeba Haley and Drew Patterson earning single assists. Auburn’s Lexi Mitchell did score in the second half to break up a possible shutout.
As that game ended, C-NS found itself at Rome Free Academy, who proved that its 10-4-2 record, though attained mostly against Class A foes in the Tri-Valley League, was far from a fluke.
The Northstars gained the early advantage when Jessica Foley scored the lone goal of the first half. That 1-0 lead held up until the Black Knights’ Katherine Migliori tied it in the second half, leading to 20 full minutes of overtime.
C-NS had more opportunities in those extra period, but RFA goalie Kaitlyn Salce worked her total to 10 saves and got rewarded when, in the second OT, Migliori returned to put a shot past Olivia Haven for the game-winner. Haven finished with five saves.
