Even as they worked through busy early stretches, each of the soccer teams at Fayetteville-Manlius understood that the key to staying on top (in the girls case) or getting to the top (in the boys case) involved toppling Baldwinsville.
The F-M girls had proven it could do so in the 2018 Section III Class AA final, and on Tuesday night the two sides would reunite, with B’ville bent on a bit of payback.
It certainly wanted a different outcome than F-M’s boys got last Monday at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, when B’ville controlled matters from the outset and blanked the Hornets 3-0.
Less than eight minutes into the game, the Bees went in front when Tyler Johnson’s shot from the left was mishandled and Brennan Walsh poked in the loose ball. Midway through the half, it got to 2-0 amid a scramble off a free kick that Chase Hornsey converted.
That margin stretched further when Johnson, robbed seconds earlier by Chris Szidat on a rocket shot, headed in a deflected corner kick early in the second half.
After two strong games to mark his return to F-M (he had three goals and two assists in a win over East Syracuse Minoa), Cheech Pagano was contained well, only getting two good shots all night – one flew wide, the other was stopped by B’ville goalie Andy Taylor.
Returning to Swan Pond on Thursday, F-M faced Liverpool and immediately roared back to form, bashing the Warriors 5-1as it raced out to a 3-0 halftime advantage and kept building from there.
Pagano returned to unstoppable form, three times finding the net for a hat trick and then assisting on goals by Jace DePuy and Ziad Abdul-Malik. Ty Teelin and Yousef Kamel both earned assists on Pagano’s tallies.
On Saturday, it was F-M and Christian Brothers Academy working together again for the “Red Out” games at Alibrandi Stadium that benefited the American Heart Association.
Both games went in the Hornets’ favor, the boys prevailing 3-1 as Pagano, Abdul-Malik and Ian Donella each earned a goal, with Logan Wilkinson and Corey Gallagher picked up assists.
Anthony Marsallo had CBA’s lone goal, an assist going to Andrew Kohlbrenner as goalie Rocco DeLorenzo had 12 saves and Szidat got seven saves.
This followed the girls game that F-M won by a 6-0 margin, with eighth-grader Hannah Goodman continuing to dazzle as she scored twice, complementing single goals by Hannah Knych, Lauren Clark, Sophia TenEyck and Ryann Dauksza.
Before all this, F-M’s girls had gone to the Hall of Fame Tournament, a large event at Niskayuna, near Albany, on Sept. 7-8 and prevailed in its division, beating Staten Island Academy 5-1 behind Anna Hartzheim’s two goals and MacArthur 2-0 with goals from Hartzheim and Clark.
In its SCAC Metro opener last Tuesday night, F-M faced Cicero-North Syracuse, and it turned into a showcase for Clark as the sophomore forward toasted the Northstars’ defense throughout a 6-0 shutout.
The Hornets led 4-0 by halftime, and kept adding to it as Clark set a career mark with four goals. Hartzheim and Chloe Hodge scored, too, with Hannah Knych and eighth-grader Hannah Goodman each contributing a pair of assists. Mahr again had a shutout, earning four saves.
As for the CBA girls, it traveled to Mexico and recorded a 4-2 victory over the Tigers. This was a breakout performance for Kennedy Paciga, who put together a three-goal hat trick to help the Brothers pull away. Emma Infanti earned CBA’s other goal.
CBA’s boys started its week by ending Chittenango’s three-game win streak last Tuesday in another 3-1 decision, with Will Raines scoring twice in the first half and Benito Vlassis getting the other goal. Zach Witz was credited with an assist.
Then the Brothers defeated Solvay 4-1 on Thursday night. With more scoring balance, CBA had four different players, including Tom Hornik, Andrew Kohlbrenner and Josh Hulslander, earn the goals, with Witz adding two assists.
