With the decisive month of October now at hand, the Cazenovia girls soccer team wanted to prove that all of the ups and downs it had gone through could lead to something special.
A great way to prove that point was to beat someone well-established, like Marcellus, who visited the Sean Googin Sports Complex last Saturday afternoon and saw the Lakers go right at them, taking plenty of shots in each half, but never getting on the board in a 1-0 defeat.
Cazenovia’s defense stymied Marcellus most of the way, and got a shutout after a first-half goal by Anna Vetsch, assisted by Lily Powell. Meanwhile, the Lakers took more shots, yet saw all of them travel off target or get swallowed up by goalies Grace Coon and Kendall Koloski, who combined for 10 saves.
Before that, Cazenovia, 4-4 going into the week, prevailed 5-2 over Mexico last Wednesday night, taking 23 shots overall and overcoming goals by the Tigers’ duo of Chloe LaDuc and Ayva Ouderkirk.
Allie Vanetti scored twice, while Jamie Joseph earned a goal and two assists. Grace Rajkowski and Chloe Boergesson each had single goals as Kirsten Underwood earned an assist. Hannah Matteson finished with nine saves.
Coming off a Sept. 23 defeat to Skaneateles, Chittenango returned home last Monday night to face Phoenix and shored up its defense in the course of a 3-0 shutout over the Firebirds.
What made it more impressive was that the Bears didn’t depend on Sarah Martin, who had nabbed nine goals in her previous three games. Instead, it overcame 17 saves from Phoenix goalie Cheyenne Wilson by having Ally Shoemaker, Tiffany Scofield and Mekenzie Dahlin find the net once apiece, with Emily Moon contributing an assist.
Two nights later, Homer, who had dropped an overtime decision to Marcellus, visited Chittenango, and didn’t even get past 80 minutes with the Bears, who again earned the shutout, this time by a 2-0 margin.
Martin returned to the scoring column, but only by earning an assist as Jessica Shepard carried the Bears’ attack, her pair of goals justifying a great defensive effort where Homer frequently got chances, but Ava Dardaris turned them all away, gaining 16 saves.
This put Chittenango at 5-3-2 going into October, where it had games this week against Onondaga and at state Class B no. 4-ranked Westhill. Cazenovia is home all of this week, meeting traditional Class C power Sauquoit Valley Saturday after taking on Holland Patent and Jordan-Elbridge.
