Big moments await both of the Fayetteville-Manlius soccer teams over the first seven days of October.
It starts Tuesday night at Swan Pond when, weather permitting, the boys Hornets hosted state no. 5-ranked Baldwinsville, intent on avenging its 3-0 defeat to the Bees in early September, still its lone blemish in 2019.
Then, next Monday night, it’s the F-M girls against B’ville, a rematch of their Sept. 17 battle that the Bees claimed 2-0 with a pair of goals late in regulation.
Neither team stumbled last week against a series of SCAC Metro division foes, with the boys Hornets quite impressive in last Tuesday’s game at West Genesee as it took out the Wildcats 3-0.
Like so many other defensive sides, WG had no answer for F-M’s Cheech Pagano, who netted two of his team’s three goals. Ziad Abdul-Malak had the other goal, also getting an assist as Ryan Pollard got an assist, too.
And it wasn’t like WG lacked serious opportunities. All through the night, it attacked, but none of the Wildcats’ nine shots got past Chris Szidat or Will Summers.
In its last game before B’ville, F-M went to Nottingham and handled the Bulldogs 5-0, with Abdul-Malak earning two goals and Antonino Pagano also scoring twice. Riley Warren-Nichols joined Cheech Pagano, who earned the other goal, in getting two assists.
The F-M girls went Liverpool last Tuesday and, scoring twice in each half, putting together a 4-0 shutout of the Warriors.
Hannah Knych was the standout on this night, three times finding the net to earn a hat trick. Morgan Goodman had the other goal, with assists credited to Anna Hartzheim, Chloe Hodge, Sophia TenEyck and Lauren Farrella.
Just 24 hours later, F-M met Cicero-North Syracuse, and against the Northstars it had four goals on the board by halftime, continuing to add from there until it had a 7-0 win in the books.
Knych only had one goal and one assist this time around, but Hodge and Lauren Clark both found the net twice, Clark adding an assist. TenEyck and Lillian Coleman also netted goals, with Hartzheim getting two assists and Abby Obrist a single assist.
On Saturday, reigning state Class B champion Chenango Forks visited F-M, but the Hornets were not impressed one bit and, after some early back-and-forth play, took over late to beat the Blue Devils 4-1.
They were 1-1 going into the second half, Ryann Dauksza having scored for F-M but Forks answering, when F-M overwhelmed the Blue Devils in the second half, three times finding the net.
Hartzheim, Knych and Goodman each joined Dauksza in the goal-scoring column, with assists going to Clark and Tomlin Cicci. Sydney Mahr stopped six of the seven shots she faced.
When F-M met New Hartford on Sunday afternoon, it leaned on Knych again as it defeated the Spartans 4-0.
What was a close contest broke open in the second half as Knych earned her second three-goal outing of the week, also assisting on Clark’s goal as Hartzheim and Farrella also assisted on Knych’s tallies.
Having improved to 10-1 overall, F-M would get a full week off, the second encounter with B’ville looming after that break.
