ONONDAGA COUNTY – In many ways, the regular season for the Cicero-North Syracuse girls lacrosse team peaked on May 9 when, at Baldwinsville, it rallied from four goals down to stun the reigning state Class A champion Bees in overtime.
Still, more work remained for the Northstars – and it got that work done without much stress.
Following a come-from-behind win over West Genesee May 11, C-NS rested until last Monday’s regular-season finale, when a short-handed Fayetteville-Manlius side visited Bragman Stadium.
Even with the Hornets’ 2-12 mark, the Northstars took it seriously -and proceeded to take out F-M, Brooke Molchanoff and Elizabeth Smith leading the way in a 17-5 victory.
Both Molchanoff and Smith finished with five goals, equaling the Hornets’ entire output as Molchanoff gained three assists and Smith a single assists.
Sophia Nesci also had a three-goal hat trick, with Marissa Doty scoring twice. Mackenzie Prentice had a goal and two assists, as did Gabby Putman. No F-M player scored more than once as single goals went to Grace Reyna, Kathryn McNany, Emily Noel, Taylor Novack and Anne Leonard.
Liverpool had a far different result in its last game of the regular season, again overwhelmed by Baldwinsville in a 16-5 defeat to the Bees.
Four different B’ville players had hat tricks, Mia Pozzi and Brianna Peters each scoring four times as Carlie Desimone and Sophia Muscolino had three goals apiece.
Only one Liverpool player, Caitlyn Guilfoil, scored twice, while Mia Berthoff, Abby Geary and Emma Esposito had one goal apiece.
Yet despite these disparate results, C-NS and Liverpool find themselves the no. 2 and 3 seeds, respectively, in the Section III Class A playoffs, bound for a semifinal against each other Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Central Square, the winner going to the May 31 title game at Christian Brothers Academy’s Alibrandi Stadium, likely with B’ville waiting for them.
