At the end of its own Optimist Tournament, the Cicero-North Syracuse boys soccer team was 1-2, and in need of some kind of spark once it returned to the gauntlet of the SCAC Metro division.
The Northstars received it against visiting Nottingham last Tuesday night, earning a 2-0 victory over the Bulldogs in large part due to the work of senior forward Joe Barraco.
Twice in the first half, Barraco flashed open and put in goals – one unassisted, the other assisted by Jawadshah Kasimi. From there, the C-NS defense took over, limiting Nottingham to three shots all night.
As that went on, Liverpool, who has a meeting with C-NS Tuesday night at the Gillette Road Complex, faced West Genesee, and saw things get away from them in the second half of a 2-0 defeat to the Wildcats.
Traditionally, Liverpool has maintained control of this league rivalry, but here the Wildcats worked through a scoreless first half before Jadin Lyle and Jacob Sachar both converted after intermission.
WG’s defense did the rest, Josh Farrell stopping all eight shots he faced. Aside from his early struggles, Warriors goalie Dan Schaeber did quite well, earning eight saves.
Thursday’s games had Liverpool going to Swan Pond to face a Fayetteville-Manlius side in a bad mood after a 3-0 defeat to Baldwinsville earlier in the week.
The Hornets proceeded to beat the Warriors 5-1, led by Cheech Pagano, a junior back from several years of national academy training who has a verbal commitment to Syracuse University.
All that Pagano did was score three goals for a hat trick and then assist on goals by Jace DePuy and Ziad Abdul-Malik. Liverpool was able to prevent the shutout when Jack Pento scored in the second half, assisted by Brady Barnard. Dan Schaeber finished with nine saves.
C-NS, meanwhile, went to Sunnycrest Field to face Henninger, and it was scoreless until the second half, when the Black Knights’ Moo Hai found the net, assisted by Abdias Nguemadji.
For the rest of the game, the Northstars had plenty of chances to pull even, but Henninger held on for a 1-0 victory, Olivier Bienvenu stopping all seven C-NS shots he faced.
Now the Northstars would face Liverpool before the Warriors hosted Baldwinsville on Thursday and C-NS had its own trip to Swan Pond to meet F-M that same night.
