Just a month ago, the notion that the Fayetteville-Manlius field hockey team would stand on its home turf on the last Sunday in October with a chance to snare a second consecutive Section III Class A championship from the grasp of Baldwinsville was an absurd one.
Maybe the Hornets had the talent and desire and ability to execute in pressure situations to reach the finals, but a 7-0 drubbing against B’ville at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium suggested that the two sides were far apart.
However, things turned around enough that, by Oct. 15, F-M could put together a 1-0 win over B’ville that, right at the end, denied the Bees a perfect 16-0 regular-season mark. It also moved up the Hornets to the no. 2 seed for the sectional tournament.
With only six teams in the sectional bracket, F-M had a bye straight into Tuesday night’s sectional semifinal, though that amounted to a road trip since it was facing no. 3 seed Rome Free Academy right on the Black Knight’s home turf at RFA Stadium.
Yet it turned into a successful road trip because the Hornets, just as it did with B’ville 10 days earlier, combined an early goal with effective defense to defeat RFA 1-0.
Any pressure or rust F-M may have felt quickly went away, because a first-half scramble inside the penalty area left the ball open for Campbell Kennedy, who drilled home a shot past Black Knights goalie Maddison Cudhea.
F-M would own most of the possession, and even though it got nothing more past Cudhea (who finished with eight saves), the Hornets protected its margin through a strong defense of its own that held RFA to four shots.
Hours earlier, Baldwinsville got pushed to overtime by a Liverpool side it beat twice in September, but Lauren Strenk’s goal, assisted by Emma Brushingham, allowed the Bees to escape 2-1 and set up the title game against F-M.
