As the second half of the regular season started, the Liverpool ice hockey team had worked into a position where appearing in the Section III playoffs was a safe bet, but climbing up in the Division I American Conference standings with West Genesee and Baldwinsville in front of them was a tall order.
Still, the Warriors kept going, and in last Monday’s game against Fayetteville-Manlius at Cicero Twin Rinks, it got off to the ideal start, and that ultimately made the difference in a 5-2 victory over the Hornets.
Before F-M could settle down, Liverpool had a 3-0 advantage at the end of the first period. That margin grew to 4-0 by the third period, when the Hornets broke up the shootout, though that proved too late.
Five different Warriors – Tyler Dorval, Connor Boland, Tommy Bianchi, Jack Irwin and Jeff Gentile – earned those five goals, with Dorval adding two assists. Bobby Welch, Carson Ferguson and Anthony Terranova had one assist apiece. Sebastian Jesmore blanked F-M until the final period and finished with 17 saves.
When Cicero-North Syracuse returned to action Wednesday night, it also was against F-M at the Twin Rinks facility the two programs share, and the Northstars pulled off the exact same result, too, beating the Hornets by a familiar 5-2 margin.
Where this game differed was in the way it got to that score. Neither side would convert until the second period, when C-NS went out in front, F-M tied it and the Northstars countered to take a 2-1 lead to the final frame. It was here that C-NS made its big move, contrasting Liverpool in that it waited until the third period to have its three-goal run.
Now Liverpool and C-NS moved on from those games, the Warriors going first as it hosted Rome Free Academy at Lysander Arena Thursday night and saw a late comeback attempt fall just short in a 6-5 defeat to the Black Knights.
They were tied, 1-1, going into the second period, but RFA took charge with three unanswered goals. It continued to produce the rest of the way as Gino DeBlasiis recorded a three-goal hat trick and assisted on all three goals scored by linemate Derrick Miller.
Despite all this, the Warriors nearly forced overtime. A four-goal third-period flurry featured Welch, who finally regained his early-season form and netted his own hat trick, finishing with three goals and three assists. Dorval piled up four assists as Bianchi picked up one goal and one assist.
