It's hard to decide if the scariest thing about the Cicero-North Syracuse girls soccer team is whether it is so young or so good.
As far as other Section III teams are concerned, the answer doesn't matter. Either way, the chances of any other team climbing to the top in that division any time soon look grim.
The Northstars locked up their third straight sectional title on Saturday night with a 2-0 win over Liverpool in a contest at SUNY-Cortland. They did so with no seniors in the starting lineup and with their best players using that experience to help continue their dynasty for the next two or three seasons of their high school careers, at least.
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Freshman Sloane Raymond and sophomore Abigail Mackey each posted a goal to make the Northstars' constant pressure finally pay off. Mackey is one of a handful of eighth-graders who played a role on C-NS' title team of 2023, and Raymond, as a seventh-grader, also cracked that lineup late in the season.
"Well, definitely we've been playing with each other for a while. A lot of us, on the same club team, we all grew up together," Raymond said of the youth movement. "(It's) just a lot of practice and hard work."
The Northstars (17-1) dropped their first game of the year in an out-of-section tournament and have not lost since. The streak now takes them to the first round of the states, against the Section II champion on Tuesday at Chittenango. C-NS' season has ended at that stage in the past two years.
Liverpool finishes 5-11-2.
It was clear from the start that the Northstars had nearly everything they needed to repeat as champs this year, but their first game mixed in another valuable ingredient — a loss.
St. Mary's edged C-NS, 2-0, at the Hall of Fame Tournament in Albany in the Nortstars' opener on Sept. 6.
"We knew that game was going to be our hardest game this season. We knew that team was really good," Mackey said. "It was our first game. We haven't played with each other in a while (over the summer), but I think since then we've really learned how to play together as a team and work together."
C-NS coach Jeremy Lenchert remembers stressing to his team the importance of hanging with such a good opponent while still trying to sort things out themselves.
"I'll say this, and this is credit to the players that they found things to take from every experience that we've had this year, even in the games where we've won by quite a bit," Lenchert said. "They've realized there are things that we can be doing in those games that are going to help us, help us be better."
C-NS beat the Legends by a combined 12-0 score in two regular-season games and dominated offensive chances on Saturday despite the close score.
Early in the first half of a scoreless game, Raymond drilled a shot that beat Liverpool goalie Graceanne Sleeth. but kissed off the far post. With 8:20 left before the break, Mackey teed up a one-timer free and clear but drilled it right into Sleeth.
"We just said all season we learned from every game and every time we played C-NS, we tried to learn a little bit more about them and game plan a little bit better," Legends coach Nikki Murphy said of her team's improved showing. "We clearly came out and battled hard and had a much better result than the first two times."
Raymond unleashed some of that frustration with 4:28 left in the half. She sent a laser from 30 yards out into the back of the net for her 19th goal of the season.
"They got a lot of talent," Murphy said. "They have a lot of girls that play a lot of soccer and they're super athletic and their work rate is high."
The game still hung in the balance past the midway point of the second half. But freshman Adalaide Svoboda then lofted a corner kick to the middle of the action in front of the Liverpool goal, and Mackey booted it in for her team-high 21st marker.
"We've been working on a lot of corners through practice, so we've been trying to get to the end of them, get a touch, even just a small touch," Mackey said. "The intensity was there. We knew it was coming. We knew it was there."
Now that the Northstars have once again reinforced their excellence, they understand the time has come to prove how high their ceiling might be.
C-NS's previous two sectional championships were immediately followed by a first-round loss to a Section II team in the state tournament. That high bar is once again looming above Lenchert and the players on Tuesday.
"One thing that we've been talking about all season long is we want to win that regional game. That's kind of been our hiccup," Lenchert said. "They just have to be confident. That's kind of been one of the things that we focused on this year. Even though they won sectionals for two years in a row, they still get nervous going into games. Just telling them, you need to realize how good you are. That's something that they're starting to discover this year, is just how talented they really are."
