Moving into October, the Fayetteville-Manlius field hockey team still had not suffered a defeat against any of its Salt City Athletic Conference rivals.
However, the Hornets had finally seen its 10-game unbeaten streak upended on Sept. 28, when reigning state Class C champion Whitney Point arrived on the F-M turf and put on quite a clinic in all phases of the game on the way to prevailing 6-0.
And now came another big test, with the Hornets going to Bragman Stadium to face a Cicero-North Syracuse side against which it needed Lucy Fowler’s goal in the last minute of regulation to pull out a 1-0 decision three weeks eariler.
It was the Northstars jumping out in front in the rematch 1-0 thanks to Chrissy Wagner’s goal, but it did not hold. The Hornets tied it, 1-1, by halftime, and then inched out in front in the second half, hanging on to claim a 2-1 decision.
Back on Monday, East Syracuse Minoa hosted Auburn and, for the second time this fall (it won 3-0 at Holland Stadium on Sept. 11), handled the Maroons, this one a 5-0 decision where the Spartans kept on going even after gaining a 2-0 halftime edge.
Maggie Saunders, with two goals, paced the ESM attack, with single goals going to Grace Stone, Abby Herrington and Mary Searle. Feeding all of them, Angelina Dodge earned a career-best three assists.
Even more impressive was what ESM did against Liverpool two nights later, putting together a first-half scoring barrage that the Warriors could not handle on the way to a 4-0 victory.
All of the goals came before halftime, two of them by Dodge, plus one each from Stone and Herrington. Searle’s deft passes made a difference as she had a season-best three assists and Jillian McGinley also got an assist.
On Tuesday night, ESM would visit struggling Baldwinsville before returning home Thursday to take on Cazenovia, while F-M rests until its own game against B’ville on Thursday night.
