ONONDAGA COUNTY – Even as it romped through other opponents, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys soccer team still understood that the path to a championship ran straight through Baldwinsville.
The two sides played to a 0-0 draw on Sept. 11. When they met again last Tuesday night at Hornets Stadium, the stakes had grown, with both sides still undefeated.
But it was the state Class AA no. 5-ranked Hornets who got the best of this battle, leaning again on the star power of senior forward Nino Pagano to beat the no. 9-ranked Bees 2-0.
Just as in that first meeting, B’ville centered its defense around containing Pagano, yet it proved too aggressive at a key early moment in the game.
A foul, committed inside the 18-yard box, in the game’s 14th minute, drew a penalty kick that Pagano converted to give F-M a lead it would not relinquish.
For the rest of the game, the Bees attempted to catch up, but was held to just five shots, all stopped by Jonathan Shiroff, and Pagano returned later to put in the insurance goal assisted by Riley Warren-Nichols.
The win stretched F-M’s unbeaten streak to 35 games, including the fact that its elimination in the 2019 Section III Class AA quarterfinals by Liverpool came in penalty kicks after it was 0-0 in regulation and overtime.
Playing at Cicero-North Syracuse on Thursday, F-M got another shutout, 3-0, a far more lopsided outcome than the 1-0 overtime decision it earned over the Northstars earlier in the month.
Spreading its attack around, the Hornets saw Pagano, Warren-Nichols and Evan Terreri each pick up goals, with Sam Dunn and Antoine Aombe joining Pagano in the assist column to overcome 10 saves by C-NS goalie Wyatt Dupell.
Now two powerful sides would collide on Saturday when F-M was challenged by Christian Brothers Academy, who sat at no. 16 in the state classs A rankings and had won nine games in a row. It was the ninth annual “Red Out” charity event to benefit the American Heart Association.
And the game lived up to the reputations of both teams, with the Brothers able to break through against the stout Horntes defense, but unable to get in front as F-M prevailed 2-1.
Even when CBA got on the board in the first half, the Hornets answered it, then broke out of a 1-1 tie in the second half even as Pagano was held without a goal or assist.
Instead, it was Goodman who was the focal point, converting once and assisting on Terreri’s tally as Stephen Probst got the assist on Goodman’s goal and Jonathan Shroff stopped eight of the nine Brothers shots.
Before all this, CBA handled Solvay 4-0 last Monday as Andrew Kohlbrenner had one goal and one assist. Rico Petrosilo, Christian Longo and Jack Abala also found the net, with Jack Griffith, Connor Morgia and Gaetano Nasci also getting assists.
Then CBA ran its win streak to nine games on Thursday by handling Phoenix 5-1 on Thursday, a game that was only 1-0 at halftime before the Brothers wore down the Firebirds’ defenders late.
Will Harrigan, in particular, hurt Phoenix. Shut out in the Solvay game, Harrigan put in three goals here and added an assist as Morgia and Petrosilo also scored. Griffith, Chris Zajdel, Sravan Kodali and Ben Carrick also had assists.
