To wrap up the first full week of October, the Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt boys soccer teams would square off at Swan Pond.
Before that, though, both teams were quite busy, with J-D playing its first games as reigning Section III Class A champions and F-M continuing to blast through its early opposition.
Having routed Liverpool 7-0 on Oct. 3, the Hornets then went to the Gillette Road Complex last Tuesday and took care of Cicero-North Syracuse in a 5-1 decision.
Again, F-M’s attack overwhelmed a defensive unit, with Cheech Pagano notching a three-goal hat trick to go with an assist as Nino Pagano had the other two goals. Ziad Abdul-Malak and Logan Wilkinson had one assist apiece.
Keeping up this blistering pace in its home opener last Thursday night, F-M wiped out West Genesee 7-1.
Once Nino Pagano converted off a corner kick in the 16th minute, the Hornets took charge, Pagano adding two more goals in the first half for a natural hat trick.
Cheech Pagano had the other goal, assisted by his brother, and Abdul-Malak would earn a goal and two assists as Matt Fiorentino and Michael OuYang also converted. Riley Warren-Nichols and Stephen Probst added assists.
While all this was going on, J-D was having its season opener last Tuesday against Auburn at Holland Stadium and steadily taking charge to beat the Maroons 3-0.
Gaining a 2-0 edge by halftime, the Rams featured Sam Bobrek, whose pair of assists benefited a well-balanced attack where Ryan Brazell, Max MacCaull and Matt Sweeney took turns earning goals.
This led to Friday night, and J-D’s own challenge to Baldwinsville that preceded the F-M showdown with the Bees on Monday afternoon.
Bobrek scored again, assisted by Johnny Keib, with Sam Allen recording seven saves. Yet the Bees won 2-1 as Drew Gates and Griffin Seeber found the net.
With less than 24 hours of rest, J-D now had to face F-M, and while its defensive effort was a strong one, the Hornets still overpowered them 4-0 to give long-time head coach Jeff Hammond his 499th career win.
For a while, it was close, the Rams only trailing 1-0, but this changed in the 53rd minute when Cheech Pagano, who already had a goal, converted again and, just 36 seconds later, he took a pass from Warren-Nichols to finish off his second hat trick of the season.
Abdul-Malak rounded out the scoring with 13:04 to play, with Warren-Nichols having earned two assists and single assists credited to Fiorentino and Tyler Goodman.
East SyracuseMinoa, whose 2019 season ended at J-D’s expense in the sectional Class A quarterfinals, dominated its season opener last Tuesday against Cortland, taming the Purple Tigers 6-0.
Three of those goals came in the first half, courtesy of Jordan Sanson, Christian Moon and Parker Gamble. Three more followed as Todd Durantini scored twice in the second half and Evan deBerjeois added a goal, Zach Shufelt feeding all of them thanks to his three assists.
Even more dominant on Thursday, ESM nearly got to double digits against Auburn but settled for a 9-0 decision where the attack displayed plenty of balance.
Shufelt and Jimmy Ferns each scored twice, while Moon had a goal and two assists. Matt Kenney also had two assists as Durantini, Garrett Hockey, Joe Federico and Braden Polcaro netted single goals.
Then the Spartans moved to 3-0 with Saturday’s 2-1 win over Liverpool, achieved when deBerjeois and Moon netted second-half goals to negate one from the Warriors’ Jacob Chajkowski. Shufelt and Eric Callahan each earned assists.