On Oct. 10, when the Liverpool boys soccer team dropped a 4-1 decision to Baldwinsville, it fell to 3-10 on the season.
If anyone, at that point, would go up to the Warriors and tell them that, exactly two weeks later, it would take down the state’s no. 6-ranked team in the Section III Class AA playoffs, players, coaches and fans alike might find that hard to believe.
Yet that’s how things played out, Liverpool winning its last three regular-season games to rush into the post-season, and then, on Thursday night, shocking Fayetteville-Manlius in the sectional AA quarterfinals, playing the Hornets to a 0-0 draw through regulation and overtime and then prevailing in penalty kicks.
The two times the Warriors met F-M this season, it lost. Yet the second game, at home on the Field Turf at LHS Stadium Oct. 3, was a 2-0 decision, far closer than the 5-1 loss it took on the grass at Swan Pond in September.
And this playoff game would take place on Field Turf, too, with F-M not playing at Swan Pond. That played to the Warriors’ advantage, since it was more familiar with games on an artificial surface.
Throughout the 80 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime, Liverpool’s defense continually frustrated F-M’s potent group of forwards, containing the league’s top scorer, Cheech Pagano, and anytime the Hornets did get a shot, Dan Schaeber grabbed it, eventually getting 12 saves.
Liverpool didn’t restrict itself to the defensive end, taking 10 shots of its own, though none of them found the net. And when OT ended 0-0, it went to penalty kicks, each side getting five opportunities at the net.
They were still tied through five rounds, and then a sixth round. Finally, in the seventh round, the Warriors converted, and F-M’s Corey Gallagher beat Schaeber, but the shot caromed off the crossbar.
Suddenly, Liverpool finds itself in the sectional Class AA semifinals, where it will face no. 6 seed Henninger Wednesday night at Jamesville-DeWitt. The Warriors beat the Black Knights 2-1 in its late-season surge after losing to them by that same margin in September.
The winner of that game faces Baldwinsville or West Genesee in the Nov. 4 sectional final. It was the no. 4 seed Wildcats that ended the season for Cicero-North Syracuse Thursday night in yet another 1-0 decision at Mike Messere Field.
Justin Klasczko’s first-half goal held up for WG as its defense shut out the Northstars for the second time in as many weeks. C-NS closed its season with a 7-9-1 record.
Moving to the girls soccer sectional Class AA playoffs, Cicero-North Syracuse entered as the no. 4 seed, knowing that, if it defeated no. 5 seed Auburn in Saturday’s opening round at Bragman Stadium, it would have a shot at top seed and defending champion F-M in the semifinal round.
The afternoon belonged to Northstars sophomore forward Maddie Jackson. Twice in the first half, Jackson put in goals, with assists credited to two other sophomores, Victoria Iannotti and Ashey Evans.
That’s all C-NS needed as it blanked the Maroons in the second half and prevailed 2-0, the Northstars’ defense limiting Auburn to just three shots, all grabbed by Avery Byrnes.
So it’s the Northstars trying to avenge two regular-season defeats to F-M in Wednesday night’s semifinal at Central Square. The winner there gets Baldwinsville or West Genesee in next Saturday’s AA title game at LHS Stadium.
