ONONDAGA COUNTY – On the first Tuesday of October, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool boys soccer teams would gather again at Bragman Stadium for a rematch of their Sept. 14 clash won by the Northstars 2-1.
Since then, C-NS had only gained in confidence, which it showed again last Tuesday night when it put together a complete effort against West Genesee.
The Northstars’ 3-0 victory over the Wildcats in Camillus improved upon a 1-0 shutout when the two sides had first met Sept. 7 at the Gillette Road complex.
And the catalyst on this night was Sean Graves, who netted two of C-NS’s three goals. The other went to Gagan Adhikari, with Jason Potter picking up an assist.
All of this was a lead-up to Thursday night’s visit from unbeaten, state Class AA no. 5-ranked Fayetteville-Manlius, a team the Northstars pushed to overtime the first time they met Sept. 9.
But in the week where F-M’s long-time head coach, Jeff Hammond, announced that he was retiring at season’s end, the Hornets didn’t require OT in the rematch, prevailing 3-0.
Wyatt Dupell made 10 saves, but Nino Pagano, who hit the OT goal in the first meeting, struck again here and added an assist as Riley Warren-Nichols and Evan Terreri had the other goals.
Meanwhile, Liverpool was 4-4-1 going into last week, but again fell below the .500 mark last Tuesday when it absorbed a 1-0 defeat to Nottingham.
Having lost 2-1 to the Bulldogs three weeks earlier, the Warriors played better defense in the rematch, shutting the door other than Twa Rit’s goal. But none of Liverpool’s six shots got past Nottingham goalie Kipling Korba-Davis.
