Five games, five opponents – and five shutouts for the Cicero-North Syracuse field hockey team in what is quickly turning into a special season, even if there are no championship rewards.

Of those early-season wins, none were as impressive as Tuesday night's 2-0 victory over defending Section III Class A champion Baldwinsville at Bragman Stadium, which showcased all of the reasons why C-NS is so good.

It helped, no doubt, that the Northstars had played four times, while the Bees had just one game (a 4-1 win over East Syracuse Minoa) in the books and had dealt with heavy graduation losses from its 2019 team.

Still, C-NS worked with poise and patience through the game's early stages, deftly defending when B'ville had a pair of penalty corners.

Then, late in the first quarter, a Northstars penalty corner turned into a goal, Jamie Snyder sending a shot to the net that a well-positioned Gia DiToma deflected past Bees goalie Cara Vredenburg.

For the rest of the half, C-NS applied more pressure, yet could not add to that 1-0 margin and would have to absorb a string of B'ville runs in a scoreless third quarter.  

Led by Anna Melfi, Alyssa Christensen and Julianna Hutt, the Northstars' back line often broke up the Bees' runs, and goalie Lexi Wagner turned back six shots overall.

Still, the game wasn't sealed until another penalty corner with 3:09 left in regulation. This time, Snyder's pass found Melfi at the point, and the senior crushed a hard shot that Vredenburg had no chance to stop.