The occasion of a first-place trophy on the line in an opening-week tournament would bring the Fayetteville-Manlius and East Syracuse Minoa field hockey teams together to face each other.
They did so on Sept. 1 in the finals of F-M’s tournament, a game where the Hornets struck quickly and never really let the Spartans respond while on the way to prevailing by a 4-0 margin.
Barely five minutes into the first half, F-M grabbed a 1-0 advantage. Then it kept adding to that total thanks to a well-balanced attack that saw four different players get those four goals.
Lindsey Kilpatrick led that charge, scoring once and adding two assists. Susan Bansbach, Avery Moses and Quinn Taylor also slapped shots in the net. F-M’s defense limited ESM’s opportunities throughout the game, Spartans goalie Cory Palmer made five saves.
Reaching the finals required wins in the opening round on Aug. 31. ESM went first, pulling away in the second half to defeat Little Falls 4-1, followed by F-M recording a 2-0 shutout over Cortland.
In the first game, an exchange of first-half goals left ESM and Little Falls at 1-1 before the Spartans scored twice in a span of three minutes early in the second half and tacked on another goal in the game’s final minute. Gillianne McCarthy scored two of those four goals, with Emma Conte and Emma Schafer also finding the net.
Then F-M took its turn against Cortland, and Susan Bansbach led the way, netting one goal and assisting on the other, by Paige Freyer, with Lindsey Kilpatrick assisting on Bansbach’s tally. The Hornets dominated the flow of play, taking 21 shots to the Purple Tigers’ two.
F-M had begun its season Aug. 29 with a 2-1 defeat to Section IV power (and three-time defending state Class C champion) Whitney Point, getting its only goal from Stephanie Drapas as Catherine Barr, making eight saves, helped keep the game within reach.
Then, after the tournament win, the Hornets challenged itself again when 11-time sectional champion Cazenovia visited last Wednesday night. It turned into a classic, with the Hornets rallying to force overtime, only to take a 3-2 defeat to the Lakers.
To its credit, F-M did not get too discouraged even when goals by Katie Ammann and Molly Brown gave Cazenovia a 2-0 edge going into halftime. Kilpatrick sparked the comeback, assisting on Bansbach’s goal and then converting one herself on a backhand.
So it was 2-2 at the end of regulation, but the seven-on-seven OT period gave the Lakers a chance to regroup and put the ball on the stick of its All-State midfielder, Zoe Shephard, who already had an assist but now flung one past Barr for the game-winner. Prior to that, Barr had made 10 saves, with Cazenovia goalie Shea Flannery making six saves.
Earlier that same day, ESM went to Weedsport and edged the Warriors 1-0. Schafer’s unassisted goal was all that the Spartans needed as Weedsport had plenty of good chances to answer it, but could not get anything past Palmer, who stopped all eight shots she faced.
As a follow-up on Friday, ESM got another road win, topping Cortland 2-0, with both goals in the first half centered around Schafer, who scored one of them and assisted on Gillianne McCarthy’s tally. Lindsey Russell assisted on Schafer’s goal.
Meanwhile, F-M lost again at home Saturday, this time in its league opener as Cicero-North Syracuse topped them by that same 2-0 margin. This left the Hornets at 2-3 going into Monday’s game at Liverpool as it also travels to the Whitesboro Tournament on Friday and Saturday.
