Cicero-North Syracuse's senior goalie Wyatt Dupell was "fantastic" in goal all night head coach Mike McCaffery said.
But it was the goalkeeper's 50-yard kick into the box that found its way into the goal and was the deciding factor in Wednesday's Class AA semifinal with Fayetteville-Manlius.
"I am not sure what happened inside the box, but, the ball's in the back of the net and Wyatt gets credit for the goal," McCaffery said.
That goal gave C-NS the 1-0 victory over the Hornets just two minutes into the double overtime period at neutral site Christian Brothers Academy.
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The semifinal matchup was a defensive battle. The NorthStars held F-M senior Nick Donnelly scoreless after he lead all of Section III's Class AA teams with 21 goals in the regular season.
"The defense was really good," McCaffery said. "I think everybody in the back made plays and really defended the Donnelley kid. He's a tremendous player, and he scores goals but we certainly didn't want him to hurt us. I thought we did a good job second defending him, knowing where he was and then and making him earn it."
Besides scoring the game winning goal, Dupell anchored the defense with his nine saves.
"We've been talking about if we were to win a Section III championship or to move through the tournament, you got to have a goalie and we have a fantastic goalie," McCaffery said. "He made tremendous plays tonight. He's just a quality kid, quality goalie, quality leader, quality captain, and, I can't say enough about him."
Heading into Wednesday' Class AA boys soccer semifinal, fourth-seeded Cicero-North Syracuse had not beaten top-seeded Fayetteville-Manlius this season. The Sept. 7 game ended in a 1-1 draw, and their Oct. 3 game went to the Hornets 4-1.
The Northstars now advance to the title game to face sixth-seeded West Genesee at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Phoenix High School. C-NS finished the year 1-0-1 against the Wildcats in their regular season meetings.
"A sectional final or any sectional game is a different game, so it doesn't really matter what you did in the regular season," McCaffery said. "It really is a different animal. We respect them. They're athletically solid. They play hard. They've got good players. I think it's gonna be a great final."
