Trying to regain the Section III Class AA crown it last earned two seasons ago, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys soccer team wasn’t going to let anyone get in the way, at least in the early going.
During Thursday night’s sectional AA quarterfinal at Swan Pond, the top-seeded Hornets jumped in front early against no. 8 seed Christian Brothers Academy, and from there cruised to a 4-1 victory over the Brothers.
F-M and CBA had met on this same field during the regular season, on Oct. 1, the “Red Out” game for the American Heart Association that the Hornets claimed by a 4-2 margin. But the conditions that day were far different, and far drier, than it was for their playoff rematch.
At least the rain let up long enough for most of the game to take place in reasonable conditions, and that was all F-M needed. Riley Burke’s goal sparked the Hornets, who would eventually build a 2-0 margin by halftime.
Adding to that lead in the late going, F-M saw Burke score a second time and add an assist, while Joe Falcone had one goal and one assist. Nate Donnella had the other goal as CBA did break up the shutout in the second half on Tristan Kucera’s goal, assisted by T.J. DaLuca. Matt Buck finished with 12 saves.
CBA had already played through the rain once in the post-season, having done so at Holland Stadium during last Tuesday’s opening-round game, where the no. 10 seed Brothers took charge early against no. 7 seed Auburn and rolled to a 4-0 victory over the Maroons.
Midway through the first half, the 0-0 deadlock got broken by CBA’s Dan Melvin, who positioned himself near the net on a throw-in and headed the pass past Auburn goalie Mike Morrissey.
Just as important was Kucera’s goal 2:48 before halftime. Not only did it make the score 2-0, it gave the Brothers momentum that carried over into the second half, where it took only four minutes for Alex Calkins to make it 3-0.
Tobias Okongo added a goal with 20 minutes left, and throughout the night Malachi Emmanuel proved a driving force for CBA, earning three assists as Ryan Caballero also got an assist. Buck stopped all eight shots he faced as Morrissey earned 15 saves.
That was CBA’s last win of the season, though, as F-M stopped them and then found out that it wouldn’t have to play defending sectional champion Cicero-North Syracuse in Wednesday’s semifinals Wednesday at Fulton after the Northstars took a 1-0 defeat to Nottingham at Bragman Stadium.
So it’s the Bulldogs against the Hornets in one semifinal, with no. 2 seed Baldwinsville facing no. 3 seed Liverpool in the other semifinal. F-M swept both games with Nottingham and B’ville in the regular season, but went 0-1-1 against Liverpool, not scoring a goal against the Warriors on either occasion.
