With patience and plenty of poise, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls soccer team has steadily risen until it can make a viable claim to sit with the top area Class AA programs.
Fresh off its big Oct. 22 win over Fayetteville-Manlius, the Northstars improved to 5-2-1 overall last Tuesday night when it battled past Liverpool 1-0 at LHS Stadium.
When these “Star Wars Cup” rivals had first met Oct. 8 at Bragman Stadium, C-NS had handled it 4-1. But the Warriors had shown plenty of its own improvement since then, tying F-M 1-1 just before the Northstars beat the Hornets.
In the rain-soaked rematch, Liverpool kept C-NS scoreless in the first half, its defense able to turn back a string of Northstars runs as Caroline Stevens was working her way to nine saves.
It stayed 0-0 until the second half, when freshman Emilee Rio, taking a pass from Briana Dorrance, put a shot past Stevens. That held up, C-NS only allowing three shots on net.
But the Northstars didn’t stop there, continuing its late-season surge two nights later when it returned home to Bragman Stadium and blanked the West Genesee Wildcats 3-0.
McKenna Slate got her team on the board in the first half, her goal assisted by Rio, before Ashley Evans made it 2-0 late in the half as Dorrance earned another assist.
Slate returned with 18 minutes left in regulation to tack on a second goal, unassisted, and the C-NS defense again was stellar, limiting WG to a single shot all night.
Liverpool met up Saturday with long-time Class A power Jamesville-DeWitt, who had not played a game in 11 days, but managed to play the Red Rams to a 0-0 draw.
Again, the Warriors’ defense had an outstanding effort, keeping J-D off the board through 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime. All of the Rams’ six shots were stopped by Stevens.
Meanwhile, C-NS won its fifth in a row, handling Central Square 4-1 largely on the basis of a hot first half where the Northstars raced out to a 3-0 edge on the Redhawks.
Julianna Marullo led the way, scoring twice, with Dorrance getting one goal and one assist. Rio added a goal as McKenna Slate and Gabrielle Scorzelli earned single assists. Central Square goalie Samantha Haley made 20 saves.
