The first time around, neither the Cicero-North Syracuse nor Liverpool girls soccer teams could quite match up against the two-time reigning Section III Class AA champions from Fayetteville-Manlius.
But the second encounters had different outcomes, with the Northstars able to beat the Hornets 1-0 last Thursday at Bragman Stadium, two nights after the Warriors had played F-M to a 1-1 draw.
When they first played Oct. 6, C-NS put a scare into the Hornets but settled for a 2-1 defeat. Here, the Northstars again got on the board, courtesy of Juliana Marullo’s goal assisted by Victoria Iannotti.
That still left plenty of time for F-M to answer, but having learned from the first encounter, C-NS did an effective job tracking Lauren Clark, Morgan Goodman and the rest of the Hornets’ forwards.
Despite constant possession, F-M had just five shots, all stopped by Avery Byrnes, who had plenty of support from a back line reinforced by the returns of Kirstyn Dallman and Briana Dorrence from injury.
Anna Aiello made several key tackles, with Gabrielle Scorzelli also playing well. Those two, along with Olivia Kozlowski and Alyssa Wilson, frustrated the Hornets all night.
After going 2-5-1 through the early stretch of its season, Liverpool was dead-set on showing more progress before time ran out this fall, and the F-M game proved it
Liverpool lost to the Hornets 2-0 earlier this month, but in the rematch, even while spending most of the first half in its own end, the Warriors mostly kept the Hornets off the board thanks to the work of goalie Maggie Tifft.
Then, with Mikayla Perry taking over in the net for her first varsity action, Tifft scored to get the Warriors on the board, assisted by Alexa Marsh, which countered F-M’s lone tally from Lauren Clark.
Through the rest of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime, it stayed even. Perry, doing superb work despite her lack of experience as a keeper, had 10 saves to complement Tifft’s eight saves.
Meanwhile, Carrisa Reudiger, Hannah MacQuatters, Lexi Carfi, Cameron Thomson and Jailyn Parrotte combined on the back line to thwart the Hornets, with Parrotte in particular making a huge stop in the OT period to keep F-M from netting the game-winner.
Now Liverpool would host Baldwinsville on Friday night, the Bees having played twice earlier in the week and coming off a 1-0 defeat to New Hartford.
Even with that, B’ville still had enough energy to handle Liverpool 4-0, led again by Hannah Mimas, who put her team in front late in the first half on a long-range shot from 25 yards out.
Early in the second half, Mimas struck again on a breakaway and added a third goal a few minutes later, capping off her night with a fourth goal with six minutes left.
Meanwhile, C-NS broke out in Saturday’s impressive 4-0 win over Whitesboro, most of the damage done in the first half as Madelyn Jackson scored twice, the other goals going to Julianna Marullo and Bri Dorrence. Iannotti had another assist.
On Tuesday night, Liverpool and C-NS would square off again, with the Warriors going to Jamesville-DeWitt Saturday and the Northstars hosting West Genesee and Central Square late in the week.
