Wherever they might be positioned now, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse girls soccer teams know they have a ways to go to reach the standards that Fayetteville-Manlius and Baldwinsville are setting.
In terms of how they stacked up against each other, the first answer was provided last Thursday night at Bragman Stadium emphatically in the Northstars’ favor.
On the way to defeating the Warriors 4-1, C-NS all but decided matters in the first half by bolting out to a 3-0 advantage, led by the duo of Victoria Iannotti and Madelyn Jackson.
With deft passes, Iannotti notched three assists, including those to Jackson, who earned two goals as Bri Dorrance and Marissa Rio had the other goals.
Liverpool did not get on the board until the second half, Alexandra Rancier scoring off a feed from Alexa Marsh, but it would get nothing more the rest of the way.
Before they met, they first had to take on the top two teams in the SCAC last Tuesday night, with C-NS pushing F-M hard in a 2-1 defeat.
In fact, the Northstars went out in front 1-0, and were still there until Lauren Clark tied the game early in the second half. Then Clark returned to feed Morgan Goodman for the game-winner with 10 minutes left in regulation.
Meanwhile, Liverpool was hosting Baldwinsville and contained most of the Bees, yet was still burned by Hannah Mimas, whose hat trick was the difference in a 3-0 loss.
Late in a 0-0 first half, Mimas struck in the 35th minute, and did not stop there, B’ville maintaining the pressure until Mimas returned to make it 2-0 with 13:43 left and then a third goal six minutes later.
All the while, the Warriors’ defense worked hard, with goalkeeper Maggie Tifft picking up 13 saves.
After the loss to C-NS, Liverpool met Central Square on Saturday and dropped a 3-0 decision to the Redhawks, who got two goals from Cora Keohane and a goal from Emma Herrmann as Samantha Haley stopped all 12 of the Warriors’ shots. Tifft finished with nine saves.
C-NS didn’t fall back, claiming a tough 2-1 decision over Auburn as it broke a 1-1 halftime tie, ultimately seeing Emilee Rio and Ashley Evans pick up the goals and Kirstyn Dallmann add an assist.
This week would see Liverpool take on East Syracuse Minoa, Oswego and West Genesee, with C-NS also taking on the Wildcats before challenging B’ville on Thursday night.
