The pursuit of a second Section III title is going quite well for the East Syracuse Minoa field hockey team as it built a six-game win streak through the opening part of the regular season.
And it nearly got to seven in a row last Wednesday night as the Spartans took aim at two-time defending Section III Class A champion Baldwinsville and pushed them to overtime before falling 2-1 to the Bees.
Much of the first half saw ESM in its own end, defending against a wave of B’ville forwards, yet only surrendering a single goal to Sarah Dusse.
That 1-0 lead for the Bees vanished less than a minute into the second half when Grace Stone put one past Bees goalie Hailey Boda. And it stayed tied for the rest of regulation, Maura Leib dazzling as she turned back 21 B’ville shots overall.
Yet overtime was something the Bees were used to, having gone through it three previous times this season without a loss. And here, it won when Mackenzie Wodka flashed open and converted.
That sixth straight win came at Auburn last Monday night as the Spartans took 22 shots and connected three times in each half on the way to blanking the Maroons 6-0.
After the battle with B’ville, ESM would take on another reigning sectional champion Saturday when it faced Holland Patent, who ended Cazenovia’s long run at the top of Class C a season ago.
This would not go to overtime, though, as the Golden Knights blanked the Spartans 3-0. Goals by Natasia Plunkett, Haley Acevedo and Emily Boulerice made the difference for HP as Plunkett also got an assist. Leib, in defeat, had five saves.
Fayetteville-Manlius had its own 5-1-1 record going into the week, having just tied defending sectional Class A champion Baldwinsville 0-0 on Sept. 13.
Back home last Monday night to face another main Class A contender, Cicero-North Syracuse, the Hornets again ended up in a tie, battling the Northstars to a 1-1 deadlock.
Katie Thies scored in the first half to pull C-NS in front, but for the rest of the game the F-M defense withstood all that was thrown at them, Catherine Barr recording seven saves.
That work was rewarded, to a degree, when Libbie Kilpatrick’s second-half goal pulled it even. Neither team could break that tie in the pair of seven-on-seven overtime periods.
At Vernon-Verona-Sherrill on Thursday, the Hornets prevailed 2-0, with goals by Susan Bansbach and Avery Moses. F-M would look ahead to a big week that included facing ESM Wednesday and Holland Patent on Friday.
