ONONDAGA COUNTY – Before they meet each other for the first time on Tuesday night at LHS Stadium, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool boys soccer teams worked through a busy opening stretch that included their own tournament outings.
In fact, their first games mirrored each other, with the Northstars, in the Optimist Tournament it hosts at the Gillette Road complex, and the Warriors, in the West Genesee Tournament, both finishing with scoreless draws on Sept. 3.
C-NS did so against Christian Brothers Academy, with its defense able to get through 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime unscathed as veteran goalie Wyatt Dupell stopped all nine shots he faced.
Then, against Marcellus the next afternoon, the Northstars got into the win column, fighting past the Mustangs 2-0 on goals by Aaron Huskic and Jacob Potter. Jake Trubia added an assist.
Meanwhile in Camillus, Liverpool found itself in the same scenario against Watertown, the Warriors and Cyclones both unable to put in a goal through regulation and OT.
Each side had all kinds of opportunities to break that deadlock, but Liverpool goalie Bennett Robb turned away 14 shots, matching his Watertown counterpart, Devin Connell.
However, the Cyclones prevailed in penalty kicks, earning a trip to the Sept. 4 final against host West Genesee as the Warriors faced a consolation game against Fulton.
Bouncing back well, Liverpool blanked the Red Raiders 3-0 to get that third-place finish, a balanced attack producing two goals before halftime and another in the second half.
Habtamu Brown, Evan Belfield and Brett Ritter took turns finding the net, with Brown adding an assist and assists also credited to Ayush Patel and Lucas Smith. The Warriors’ defense held Fulton to just two shots all night
League play got underway last Tuesday with C-NS again at home, this time taking on West Genesee and getting yet another shutout, edging the Wildcats 1-0.
A first-half goal by Sean Graves stood up the rest of the night, the Northstars’ defense again quite effective by limiting WG to just two shots.
Then it was C-NS trying to knock off undefeated Fayetteville-Manlius Thursday night, and pushing the game to overtime, only to taste defeat in yet another 1-0 decision.
Constantly, the Hornets put pressure on the Northstars, and mostly met with frustration thanks to the efforts of Dupell, who recorded 10 saves. But in the OT period, another F-M attack proved successful as Syracuse University recruit Nino Pagano put in the game-winner.
In back-to-back games against Syracuse city opponents, Liverpool hosted Nottingham on Wednesday, falling 2-1 to the Bulldogs, and then traveled to Sunnycrest Field to face Henninger on Thursday night where it prevailed 1-0.
The game with Nottingham did not feature a goal until the second half, when Joe Berry converted off a feed from Nick Hope for the Warriors, only to have Fred Butler find the net twice to help the Bulldogs prevail.
Turning it around against Henninger, Liverpool went in front with Hope again assisting on his team’s lone goal, this time by Mohammad Alattas. This helped to overcome nine saves by Black Knights goalie Olivier Bienvenu., with the Warriors limiting Henninger to four shots, all stopped by Vincent Thompson.
