And it nearly got better Thursday night, the Bears putting a serious scare into state Class B no. 4-ranked Christian Brothers Academy before taking a 4-3 overtime loss to the Brothers.

If nothing else, the game proved that Chittenango could stay with a high-quality opponent without leaning too much on Abby Scheidelman, who entered the game with 32 goals this season.

In fact, with CBA worried about Scheidelman in the opening minutes the Bears stunned the Brothers with two quick goals from others – one from eighth-grader Camryn Potter, the other from Dominique Brown.

It nearly got to halftime 2-0 but the Brothers moved within one when Ciara Duggan converted just 11 seconds before intermission to snatch momentum that carried over.

Naveah Bacheyie tied it early in the second half and Anisa Tavarez gave CBA a 3-2 edge with 11 minutes left, only to have Scheidelman, bottled up most of the way, force a turnover and find the net late in regulation.

This led to OT, and after one scoreless period the match seemed headed for a draw. But with time running low Duggan returned and, taking a pass from Harper Bonstad, put home the decisive goal for the Brothers.

Before all this, Chittenango’s 10th victory involved getting 10 goals against Cortland last Tuesday night, the Bears seeing Lis Vonderweldt earn her first career hat trick on the way to taming the Purple Tigers 10-0.

Those three goals by Vonderweldt complemented the three from Scheidelman. Hannah Machan converted twice, with Lily O’Brien and Danielle Ramie each getting one goal and one assist. Camryn Potter and Savanna Napolitano earned single assists.

And after the CBA battle, Chittenango finished its regular-season slate Saturday blanking Vernon-Verona-Sherrill 5-0.

One more hat trick came from Scheidelman, her three goals complemented by two goals from Machan as Potter set a new career mark earning three saves and the Bears moved to 11-5.

Cazenovia managed to control most of last Tuesday’s game against Homer, only to take a 1-0 overtime defeat to the Trojans.

The Lakers had twice as many shots, but saw each of its 16 chances turned back by Homer goalkeeper Kennadie Taylor in the 80 minutes of regulation plus OT.

Skye Stanford had eight saves on her part, but in the first OT the Trojans picked up the decisive goal when Emily Petrella converted, dropping Cazenovia’s overall record to 3-12.

In its regular-season finale against Cortland two nights later, the Lakers unloaded on the Purple Tigers, doubling its previous best season mark for goals in the course of a 6-1 victory.

Having not scored more than three times in any game this fall, Cazenovia got three just from Ava Vanetti, who had just two previous goals heading into the Cortland contest so she more than doubled her season total with her hat trick.

Ella Baker chimed in by converting twice, while Nora Berg and Maura Phillips had two assists apiece. Assists also went to Tara Pratt and Lexi Isbell.