CENTRAL NEW YORK – At 3-1 through four games, the Cicero-North Syracuse ice hockey team would face two major challenges as it played three more times in a five-day span.
In the first of those big games, the Northstars went to Kennedy Arena last Monday and, in its league opener, fell 4-2 to Rome Free Academy.
They traded goals a minute apart in the first period, Andrew Davis getting C-NS on the board after Chris Brement converted for the Black Knights. It stayed that way until early in the second, when Brement’s second goal put RFA up for good.
Jacob Bruno and Cameron Orton added goals that made it 4-1 in the Black Knights’ favor going to the third. Though David Cooley did score in the game’s final minute, it proved too late as Jase Knopp, Drew Matyasik, Hayden Scott and Rob Warner all got assists and Leyton Sullivan recorded 28 saves.
Back home at the Twin Rinks Wednesday to face Watertown IHC, C-NS did better putting the puck in the net, yet could only manage a 4-4 tie with the Cavaliers.
It was IHC going in front 3-2 during a wild first period, but then the Northstars’ defense settled down and blanked the Cavaliers until the third, by which point it had caught up.
Still, neither side could win it in OT as Scott’s pair of goals paced the C-NS attack. Chase Mearon and Cam Walker also had goals, with Knopp getting two assists. Single assists went to Davis, Cooley and Cole Prevost.
This led to Friday night and the trip to Shove Park to face reigning state Division I champion West Genesee, who had taken early-season losses to Skaneateles and Pittsford, both shutouts.
Now the Wildcats have recovered, and would do enough to fight past the Northstars 3-1 where the lone C-NS goal was a second-period tally by Scott, assisted by Knopp.
Sullivan did a great job keeping his side in the game, stopping 32 of 35 shots, but WG broke through with single goals in each period, with Jacob Pensabense and Nick Meluni each getting one goal and one assist and Jonah Vormwold getting two assists.
CNY Fusion, the combined team from Fulton and Liverpool, was in firm control of last Tuesday’s game at Meachem Rink, leading the Syracuse Cougars 3-0 through two periods.
Then poor ice conditions, with pooling in several spots, halted the game, and the sides ultimately agreed to abandon it, not knowing whether Fusion’s lead would stand up and the game would be made official.
Things were completed on Thursday night when Fusion traveled to Kennedy Arena to face Rome Free Academy, who would hand Fusion its first defeat of the season.
The 5-0 margin seemed to reinforce the Black Knights’ place as a serious championship contender, the hosts netting all of its goals in the last two periods to overcome Trevor Smith’s 38 saves. Jackson Marchione, with two goals and two assists, led RFA’s push.
Fusion got ready for another busy stretch that included a Tuesday clash with Baldwinsville in between games against Shaker on Sunday (which Fusion won 3-0 on goals by Dan Devendorf, Andrew Gabor and Will Burns as Smith shot stopped all 35 shots he faced) and Finger Lakes on Thursday night.
