Already with a win over its closest neighbors in the books, the Cicero-North Syracuse field hockey team went in hot pursuit of more.
The Northstars played three times in five nights, culminating with last Friday’s battle against Fayetteville-Manlius, where a combination of stout defense and one timely scoring play produced a 1-0 win over the Hornets.
All through the game, C-NS’s back line continued what it had done throughout the opening portion of the season, rarely giving F-M’s forwards any room to work.
On the other end, patience again worked for the Northstars, who overcame eight saves from Hornets goalie Claire Grenis by having Jamie Snyder put a shot past Grenis late in the contest.
Back on Monday night at Bragman Stadium, C-NS had turned back Canastota 3-0, its second consecutive shutout following a 4-0 win over Liverpool on Oct. 2.
Sophia Melfi’s goal, assisted by Giana Wameling, was the only tally for either side in the first half, but the Northstars got away late thanks to Emily Colagiovanni and Courtney Jaworski, who each netted their first goals of the season.
Still at home Wednesday night, C-NS welcomed Cortland, and it was a tighter contest than the first two, but with some late heroics the Northstars were able to edge the Purple Tigers 1-0 in overtime.
Through the 60 minutes of regulation, Cortland was able to keep C-NS bottled up, with Purple Tigers goalie Isabella Smith managing to stop all seven shots she faced.
So it went to a 10-minute, seven-on-seven extra period. With 2:52 left, Chrissy Wagner forced a turnover just in front of the Cortland net and quickly passed it to Wameling, who on the doorstep shot it past Smith for the game-winner.
Back on Monday, Liverpool took its own turn against F-M, and was under constant attack throughout the night, unable to break out of its own end in a 2-0 defeat to the Hornets.
Were it not for 16 saves from goalie McKenna Ecker, the Warriors might not have stayed within range. Instead, F-M had to labor, only getting a first-half goal from Sarah Porter and a second-half tally from Ella Herber.
Against the same Cortland team that pushed C-NS to overtime, Liverpool lost in yet another 1-0 decision, the only goal scored by the Purple Tigers’ Megan Harrington.
