ONONDAGA COUNTY – Section III Division I playoff hockey would see Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool make their way to Thursday-night quarterfinal games – one at home, one in a locale that was also familiar.
And only one would get through.
The no. 4 seed Northstars were at home, welcoming no. 5 seed Rome Free Academy to the Twin Rinks more than two months after it beat the Black Knights 4-2 in the regular season.
Back then, C-NS battled consistency. Now, it was a far more confident unit, having won four in a row going into the playoffs – and then ending RFA’s season with a convincing 7-2 victory.
Wasting little time, the Northstars established a 4-1 advantage by the end of the first period, matching its entire output from the first RFA game.
And that margin continued to grow, led by Braden Porter, who put up three goals for a hat trick and added an assist, and Emmit Porter, who had two goals and two assists.
Hayden Scott and Kyle DeBejian also put up goals, with Tyler Milewski and Tanner Long earning goals. In goal, Ethan McKenzie recorded 17 saves.
Liverpool, with its 4-15-1 regular-season mark, knew that any playoff hopes hinged on finding some offense to complement the work in goal by James Welch.
And that’s exactly what happened in last Tuesday’s opening-round game against Fayetteville-Manlius at the Coliseum, the combination of Welch and a timely scoring surge leading to a 4-0 shutout of the Hornets.
This was the same F-M side that beat the Warriors 3-1 on Jan. 31, but in the rematch Welch turned back everything, including all the shots in a scoreless first period when F-M had a great chance to go in front.
Inspired by this, Liverpool took charge with three unanswered goals in the second, tacking on an insurance tally in the third as Evan Haskins scored twice and Alex Kirkby and Bradley Cole had the other goals.
F-M would take 25 shots, and Welch would stop all of them, and even was credited with an assist on one of the goals, joining Kirkby and Calen Brown in that column.
But now, on Thursday night, it was top seed Baldwinsville, on the same ice in Lysander that the Warriors used as a home venue years ago but also a place where it lost 5-1 to the Bees late in January.
Here, it would prove nearly identical, Liverpool tough and game, but B’ville proving too tough and too deep, getting away late to prevail 4-1.
After the Bees seized an early 2-0 advantage, Welch did all in his power to keep it that way, ultimately earning 41 saves, but getting no support other than a third-period goal from Haskins, assisted by Brown and Cole.
B’ville limited Liverpool to just nine shots overall, with goals from Nick Cary, Harrison Bragg, Trevor Sutton and Jamie Gipe insuring a semifinal berth as the Warriors’ season concluded.
