ONONDAGA COUNTY – When the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool girls soccer teams met up again on Tuesday at Bragman Stadium, they did so in different circumstances than their Sept. 14 meeting won by the Northsars 2-1.
Now it was C-NS enjoying its best stretch of the season, while the Warriors, worn down by a stretch of six games in eight days, was just trying to regroup for the homestretch.
Most important to the Northstars was Saturday’s meeting with West Genesee, who was battling with C-NS for top honors in the SCAC Metro division along with Fayetteville-Manlius.
Or at least that seemed to be the case going into last week before the Wildcats met up with Liverpool on Thursday and it was the Warriors emerging with a tough 1-0 victory.
These same teams had met eight days earlier in Camillus and WG had prevailed 2-0, but in the rematch on the turf at LHS Stadium the Warriors were able to play a game much more suited to itself.
Again stingy on defense, Liverpool has earned a shutout each of the six times it has won this fall. Sophia Jarosz, Sienna Villa, Ashlyn Brown, Cam Thompson, Mikayla Perry and Molly Ryan all combined to thwart WG’s attacks and gave up just five shots that Hannah Smith successfully dealt with.
And it also assured that the goal Grace Muller picked up off a feed from Jailyn Parrotte held up, Liverpool overcoming seven saves by Wildcats goalies Julia Poissant and Jenna Orr.
C-NS had, two days after the first meeting with B’ville, blanked previously unbeaten Bishop Ludden 4-0 last Monday at Bragman Stadium, with Emilee Rio at the forefront.
All that Rio did was net two goals and assist on the other two, converted by Alison Dimitirjevski and Sophia Donovan, with Grace Engle assisting on one of Rio’s goals. C-NS took 16 direct shots to the Gaelic Knights’ one.
When back in league action Thursday night again at Baldwinsville, the Northstars survived a furious second half and, led by Dimitrijevski and Maya Germain, defeated the Bees 3-1.
They had gone through a scoreless first half when B’ville surprised C-NS as Audra Salvagni took a pass from Nadia Guzman and fired it past Meghan McGrath to give the hosts a 1-0 edge.
It didn’t take long, though, for C-NS to answer, and twice in the final 20 minutes it converted to break out of the 1-1 tie as Germain earned a pair of goals and Dimitrijevski got the other.
Then C-NS had its turn against West Genesee on Saturday afternoon, the two sides going beyond regulation but not settling anything as it ended in a 1-1 draw.
Here, it was the Wildcats going in front thanks to Eva Poissant’s goal in the 27th minute. The Northstars didn’t allow anything more and tied it in the second half on Rio’s goal with 14 minutes left in regulation, the two sides unable to resolve it in OT as McGrath finished with six saves.
