What the Liverpool girls soccer team hopes for is that, if it confronts Baldwinsville for a third time this fall with a Section III Class AA title on the line, it goes much more like the first meeting than the second.
The rematch last Saturday at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium was all about the Bees, who ran wild and beat the Warriors 5-0 to avenge a 2-1 defeat when the two rivals met at LHS Stadium in late September
Even with that 2-1 victory in the first encounter, Liverpool still had to win the rematch, too, or surrender the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division regular-season title, this due to that Oct. 3 defeat to Fayetteville-Manlius.
B’ville brought a singular focus to this game, though, and when Kaitlyn Kelly put one past Warriors goalie Megan Merrifield early in the first half, the Bees gained a momentum that it would never relinquish.
Late in the half, Hannah Mimas took her turn, scoring off a feed from Kelsey DeLola, and the 2-0 halftime lead only served as a starting point for the second-half action to follow.
Mimas returned for her second goal, again assisted by DeLola, and then Hannah Johnson joined the fun, taking Simone Neivel’s pass and converting before a late goal by Madeline Bush, assisted by Carolyn Brussel, completed the effort.
In between all these conversions, Merrifield did make 12 saves, and Liverpool took its fair share of attacks, only to get turned back each time as B’ville goalie Meaghan Wilson made 10 saves.
Still sore at the loss to F-M, the Warriors took it out on West Genesee last Tuesday night in Camillus, spoiling the Wildcats’ Senior Night with an all-out effort that led to a 5-2 victory, adding to the 3-0 shutout over WG earlier this season.
Up 2-1 by halftime, Liverpool got away with the Kovarik sisters again at the forefront. Bri Kovarik netted a goal and two assists, while Carli Kovarik found the net twice and Abby Kovarik chipped in with a goal.
Abby Haley scored, too, with assists credited to Emily Door and Leigha Johnson. All of it helped to overcome goals by WG’s tandem of Katie McManus and Emma Parry.
Now Liverpool hoped that its other neighbors from Cicero-North Syracuse would, on Thursday night, catch B’ville looking ahead to the visit from the Warriors – but that wasn’t the case.
The Bees bashed the Northstars 6-0, starting to get away when Hannah Mimas and Simone Neivel scored two minutes apart midway through the first half.
Despite 16 saves from C-NS goalie Olivia Haven, the Bees kept attacking and added four more goals, one each by Mimas, Leah Burrer, Leslie Brooks and Kaitlyn Kelley, with Neivel, Mimas, Carolyn Brussel and Kelsey DeLola picking up assists.
C-NS had two non-league games on the weekend, starting with a 4-0 shutout of Cincinnatus where a trio of first-half tallies proved more than enough.
Four different players – Marissa Bukowski, Haley Imbesi, Jessica Foley and Ciera Murphy – earned the four goals, with Bukowski joining Morgan Siechen, Ashlyn Slate and Kaitlyn Lippert in the assist column.
A day later, C-NS pulled out a 2-1 decision over Whitesboro, overcoming Cailyn Onate’s first-half goal as Bukowski and Siechen both found the net, with Olivia Haven stopping 11 of the 12 shots she faced to help the Northstars hang on.
As the no. 5 seed in the sectional AA bracket, C-NS will need to win at no. 4 seed F-M in Friday’s quarterfinals to get a shot at B’ville, the top seed, while no. 2 seed Liverpool again faces no. 7 seed West Genesee in its quarterfinal Thursday night.
