CENTRAL NEW YORK – April brought both warm weather and plenty of high school girls lacrosse action, with Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool both in search of some early-season wins against high-caliber competition.
The Northstars, who handled Westhill 14-7 in its March 30 season opener, followed with two close games – and won them both, starting April 1 with a ferocious second-half comeback against South Jefferson.
Down 7-3 at halftime due to great work by the Spartans’ Savannah Hodges (three goals, one assist) and Madelyn Barney (two goals), C-NS took over on defense in the second half, earning a shutout.
Meanwhile, six unanswered goals produced a 9-7 victory, the comeback led by Sophia Nesci, who had two goals and three assists, and Elizabeth Smith, who netted three goals.
Brooke Molchanoff managed a goal and three assists. Natalie Wilson earned two goals as single tallies went to Mackenzie Prentice and Shea Firth.
Then, in last Monday’s game against Victor, C-NS made it three in a row, edging the Blue Devils 11-10 with a combination of timely scoring plays and a big performance from Nicole Mirra.
Each of Mirra’s 12 saves were important as, on the other end, Molchanoff scored four times, adding an assist. Nesci had three assists as she and Gabby Putman both scored twice, with Prentice getting three assists. Smith, Wilson and Firth had one goal apiece.
Yet another close game took place last Wednesday against yet another Section V opponent, C-NS this time doing just enough to top the Penfield Patriots 9-8.
The whole game proved tight, with the Northstars getting in front 5-4 by halftime. Penfield caught up but could never get a lead as C-NS ultimately built a 9-6 advantage.
Back-to-back goals again cut the margin to one, but C-NS was able to run out the last three minutes, maintaining possession.
Nesci, with her five assists, anchored an attack where Prentice netted three goals, with Molchanoff and Smith both converting twice. Putman and Wilson had the other goals.
This was quite a contrast to the April 1 season opener for the Liverpool girls, who ran into Section V’s Webster Thomas and struggled to find any kind of offense in a 14-4 defeat to the Titans.
Only Grace Geary was able to score twice for the Warriors, with single goals going to Mia Berthoff and Emma Espoisto. Sofia Valente was busy in the net, recording 14 saves.
A 9-5 defeat to Westhill followed last Monday afternoon, Liverpool not having any player score twice. Grace Geary, Abby Geary, Caitlyn Guilfoil, Gianna Carbone and Cali Brancato had single goals, with Carbone adding an assist and goalie Ava Eicholzer getting seven saves.
Liverpool finally got into the win column Thursday by topping Rome Free Academy 13-7, getting carer-best performances from both Esposito and Abby Geary.
Accumulating eight assists, Geary kept feeding it to Esposito, and Esposito kept finding the net on her way to six goals, helped by two-goal outings from Carbone, Guilfoil and Grace Geary. Berthoff had the other goal.
