ONONDAGA COUNTY – A year ago, the Liverpool girls lacrosse team got within inches of knocking out Cicero-North Syracuse two rounds before the Northstars earned the Section III Class A championship.
Now the rivals are lined up again to meet again with a season on the line, playing next Thursday in the sectional semifinal at East Syracuse Minoa Stadium with the winner to get to the May 31 final at SUNY-Cortland.
It just so happened that Liverpool and C-NS would finish the regular season battling one another last Monday night at Bragman Stadium, and again the Northstars got the best of it, prevailing 11-8.
They had first played on May 5 at LHS Stadium and C-NS had won by a comfortable 12-5 margin, and while the rematch was far closer, it still remained a constant chase.
The Northstars jumped out in front 4-1 in the first 10 minutes, and maintained that distance the rest of the half until it went to the break sporting an 8-4 lead.
At one point in the second half, the margin grew to five, 11-6, and while Liverpool did make up some of the ground, it could not put a sustained scoring run together.
Brooke Molchanoff, with three goals and one assist, led a deep Northstars attack. Mackenzie Prentice and Gabby Ciciarelli each scored twice, with single goals going to Shea Firth, Sophia Nesci, Tori Iannotti and Gabby Putman as Nesci and Iannotti also earned assists.
Liverpool’s Maggie Tifft led both sides with four goals. Gianna Carbone converted twice, with Abby Geary and Grace Geary earning one goal apiece. The Warriors took as many shots, but Nicole Mirra put up eight saves.
A day later, Liverpool played a close one against Class D power South Jefferson, who beat C-NS earlier this season.
But the Warriors lost 12-10 to the Spartans, who had seven goals from Macy Shultz to overcome an effort that included Carbone, Abby Geary, Grace Geary and Mia Berthoff netting two goals apiece. Abby Geary added four assists as Tifft was held to a single goal, matching Lana Alampi.
Just as with the girls, the C-NS and Liverpool boys would have a semifinal date with one another, meeting Tuesday night at Bragman Stadium to see who would return on Friday for the title game against Baldwinsville or Syracuse.
