CENTRAL NEW YORK – On the same Vernon-Verona-Sherrill turf where they met one year earlier, and with the same stakes, Cicero-North Syracuse and Rome Free Academy battled each other for the Section III Class A championship.
Only this time, there was no comeback for the Northstars, only disappointment as it fell, 1-0, to the Black Knights on Fiona McMahon’s overtime goal.
Every RFA player remembered how it let a two-goal lead get away in the 2022 sectional final, then watched as C-NS made it all the way to the state finals. More recently, the Northstars, by a 2-0 margin, gave the Black Knights its only defeat so far this fall.
The game’s frustrating pattern for C-NS emerged in the first four minutes, when an all-out Northstars attack yielded four penalty corners, all of which RFA managed to stop.
Regardless of the way it earned them, C-NS simply could not turn its set pieces into goals, ultimately earning 12 penalty corners but turned back every single time.
All through regulation, RFA had its fair share of looks, too, especially in the second and fourth quarters, when it put on consistent pressure.
Whether it was a stout back line in the first case or goalie Olivia Planty making three point-blank stops in he waning minutes of regulation, the Northstars kept it 0-0.
It appeared, as OT got underway, that C-NS had weathered a crisis when it got back to seven-on-seven play. But at the 2:21 mark, the Black Knights pushed and Izzy McMahon passed it to Fiona McMahon at the point, and her hard shot eluded Planty for the game-winner.
More than anyone else, Liverpool wanted to join C-NS in that sectional final, but the no. 3 seed Warriors’ title dreams were upended last Tuesday at VVS in a wild 5-4 semifinal defeat to RFA.
When these two teams had met earlier in the month, the Black Knights prevailed 2-0. The rematch proved far different, Liverpool going in front three different times, yet unable to hold any of those leads.
After a scoreless first quarter, things picked up when Mia Berthoff, off a penalty corner, fired home a goal a minute into the second period. Then Berthoff made it 2-0 when, after an RFA foul on a scoring attempt, Berthoff converted the penalty stroke.
Near the midway point of the quarter, it was the Black Knights’ turn, a penalty corner leading to Alexa Thompson’s goal. Then, with three minutes left in the half, Danielle Kopek’s goal forged a 2-2.
What happened in the last seconds of the half proved pivotal. Berthoff converted again, firing from a screen 10 yards to complete a natural hat trick.
But just when it looked like the Warriors would take a 3-2 lead to the break, its own foul on an RFA scramble led to a penalty stroke with three seconds left that Izzy McMahon put past Jenna Hayes.
Thus, when Gianna Carbone scored just 19 seconds into the third quarter, Liverpool only had restored a one-goal edge, which the Black Knights again erased 90 seconds later on Kopek’s second goal.
McMahon returned to convert at the 10:39 mark of the period, and RFA led for the first time all night. From there, the Warriors’ defense did settle down, Hayes working her total to nine saves.
However, the Black Knights proved even more stubborn, rarely letting Liverpool earn opportunities to get back even all through a tense fourth quarter and earning its return trip to the sectional final.
Contrasting all this was the way C-NS methodically worked through its sectional semifinal against no. 5 seed Baldwinsville, dominating on both sides in a 3-0 win over the Bees.
Having already beat B’ville twice in the regular season by 1-0 and 5-1 margins, the Northstars’ bigger concern was how it would fare in its first game action in 11 days.
A first-quarter goal allayed those fears, and two more would follow before halftime, C-NS seeing three different players convert as Gabby Wameling, Paige Pangaro and Isabel Normanly all earned goals and Addie Esce added an assist.
Rarely did the ball get out of the Bees’ end, and though B’ville goalie Chloe Butler did make nine saves, she could not help relieve pressure that C-NS applied until its return to the sectional final was secure – a return that did not end the same as it did 12 months earlier.
