Having also gone through its fair share of ups and downs, the Chittenango girls soccer team got a chance to showcase its skills in last Monday’s game against Altmar-Parish-Williamstown, a lopsided affair that ended 7-0 in the Bears’ favor.
Not content with a 3-0 halftime advantage, Chittenango more than doubled that margin after the intermission, with Sarah Martin at the forefront as she put together a three-goal hat trick, adding an assist.
Plenty of support was around, too, starting with Jessica Shepard, who had one goal and one assist. Clara Colon, Emily Moon and Kendra Moore also picked up goals as Mekenzie Dahlin contributed an assist.
Chittenango rolled again on Wednesday against visiting Jordan-Elbridge, scoring five times in the first half on the way to a 6-0 shutout of the Eagles as, again, Martin proved unstoppable, earning her second hat trick in as many games in those first 40 minutes and notching four goals to give her seven for the week.
Moon finished with one goal and one assist, with Dahlin also finding the net. Ally Shoemaker and Tiffany Scofield picked up assists as J-E goalie Mia Arms did better as the game went on, earning 15 saves overall.
This put the Bears at 3-2-2 going into Saturday’s game at Skaneateles, where it lost, 4-2, unable to recover from a first half where Skaneateles bolted out to a 3-0 halftime edge, led by Tess Peterson, who would score twice.
Trying to bring her side back, Martin would record her eighth and ninth goals of the week, and Ava Dardaris made 10 saves. But the efforts of Peterson, Grace Hilpl and Ry’ley Pascal (one goal each) helped Skaneateles hang on.
Cazenovia started the week with a 3-3 mark, and improved upon that total in last Tuesday night’s 2-1 win at Solvay. Jamie Joseph had a goal and Chloe Willard added an assist, but it took every bit of the Lakers’ efforts to push past a Bearcats side that got 18 saves from goalie Haley Muehl.
However, the Lakers’ next test was against reigning Section III Class B champion Westhill on Friday night, and Cazenovia got overwhelmed in a 6-0 defeat to the Warriors.
Though Matteson picked up six saves, Westhill still got to her with a deep, versatile attack, Katelyn Karleski scored twice for the Warriors, with Sophia Caron earning a pair of assists. Megan O’Reilly, Ciarra Rudnick, Lauren Holstein and Lauren Marshall had one goal apiece.
Pushed back to 4-4 overall, the Lakers would take on Hannibal Tuesday and Mexico Wednesday before a Saturday-afternoon visit to Marcellus. Chittenango has its own game at Hannibal Thursday after back-to-back home dates early this week with Homer and Phoenix.
