FULTON – Once more the Cicero-North Syracuse ice hockey team has put itself one victory from reaching the Section III Division I championship game, having subdued its neighbors to get that far.

Two goals from Chase Mearon and plenty of key stops from goaltender Leyton Sullivan helped the no. 5 seed Northstars fight past no. 4 seed CNY Fusion 3-1 in Monday’s sectional quarterfinal at Fulton Ice Arena.

These teams were supposed to meet last Thursday, but weather, and the lack of available officials, pushed it back four days. By the time they played, all of the other quarterfinals done and the two sides knew that the winner would get Rome Free Academy in the semifinals.

Having played to a 3-3 tie at this same rink nearly three weeks earlier, it was little surprise that the playoff rematch would prove just as tense, despite C-NS’s best efforts.

Dominating the first period, the Northstars took 13 shots to Fusion’s five, but could only get one past Trevor Smith, when Mearon converted at the 13:09 mark after several other good chances were turned back.

Fusion, down 1-0, would respond with a push of its own in the second, and stayed patient even though Sullivan made seven different stops on a five-minute power play caused by Nate Bustin’s boarding penalty.

With less than two minutes left in the period, Andrew Gabor, who netted a hat trick in that first meeting with C-NS, beat Sullivan for the goal that tied it, 1-1, but it didn’t stay even for long.

Just 1:27 into the third, Mearon, who only had two goals all season entering this game, broke free again and, in a two-on-one breakaway, put in the go-ahead goal, doubling his season output in a single afternoon.

This still left ample time for Fusion to pull back even, and it almost did.

Sullivan stopped Dan Devendorf point-blank on a breakaway with 4:25 left. Then, with Smith (who finished with 39 saves) pulled, Alex Kirkby, with 1:10 left, struck a shot off the crossbar.
Andrew Davis, a force all game long on both ends of the ice, converted on an empty net with 14.4 seconds to play.

Now C-NS was in the semifinals, just as it was in 2023 when it lost to Baldwinsville, and it would face no. 2 seed Rome Free Academy last Wednesday night at Kennedy Arena with a spot in the title game against defending champion West Genesee at stake.

Once more, though, the Northstars’ dreams of going further were thwarted. The Black Knights prevailed 2-0 in a game that was close, tense and dominated by defense most of the way.

Late in the first period, RFA got in front when, at the 14:02 mark, John Sharrino, off a pass from Jackson Marchione, sent a wrist shot that zipped through traffic, crashed off the post and behind Sullivan.

And it would stay 1-0 for a while, neither side getting anything for the rest of the first and then the entire second period. Most of the time C-NS tried to set up its attack, the Black Knights turned it away, its defense limiting the Northstars to 19 shots that Donte Sparace turned away.

It was still a one-goal game when, with 10:17 left, Jacob Bruno grabbed Tyler Lokker’s pass, sped up the left side and, with space to shoot, fired a high one into the top-right corner, doubling the margin.

Unable to answer, C-NS watched the Black Knights secure its first sectional finals berth since 2014, while its own season ended at 10-7-4, still in search of a first-ever sectional championship.