CENTRAL NEW YORK – Just before September concludes, the Cazenovia and Chittenango girls soccer teams will meet one another Friday afternoon at the Sean Googin Sports Complex.
This promises to be a good game, given the way both teams have played so far.
Cazenovia found itself challenged last Monday night by Christian Brothers Academy on its home turf, and were in it all the way to the end, even though it took the Brothers prevailed 1-0.
This was an exciting contest despite the low score, with multiple opportunities on both ends and plenty of great stops by the opposing goalies.
Skye Stanford had 12 saves, one less than CBA counterpart Cara Macaluso, who turned back everything Cazenovia sent at her and was supported by Neveah Bacheyie getting the only goal off a feed from Katherine Williamson.
When Cazenovia faced Phoenix on Wednesday night, it again ended in a 1-0 defeat. None of the Lakers’ 10 shots got past Firebirds goalie Sara Ruetsch, and Paige Pinkley’s goal proved enough despite six saves from Stanford.
Chittenango was undefeated before taking a 3-1 loss to Holland Patent last Monday night, with Danielle Ramie netting the Bears’ lone goal.
Abby Scheidelman had an assist but was kept off the scoreboard otherwise, and the Golden Knights won it with single goals from Chloe Swift, Natalie Rubas and Corinne Lenart.
At Homer two nights later, the Bears rebounded with a 3-0 shutout of the Trojans. Homer made the mistake of focusing on Scheidelman, and she responded with assists on all of Chittenango’s goals, one each to Alex Sylstra, Abby Horning and Danielle Ramie as Rebecca Baldwin got six saves.
Then Chittenango hosted Vernon-Verona-Sherrill on Friday night and it turned into an exciting contest that the Bears were able to claim by a 4-2 margin over the Red Devils to move its record to 6-1-1.
Again finding her form, Scheidelman augmented her lone goal with a pair of assists, part of a balanced attack where Horning, Hannah Machan and Abby Baldwin also converted, Baldwin adding an assist.
Chittenango would test itself against powerful Westhill on Monday and Cortland on Wednesday before the Cazenovia game as the Lakers would have to visit Skaneateles and Marcellus those same days.
