Plenty of respect is given to the Cicero-North Syracuse girls soccer team, as evidenced by the no. 5 position it holds in the first state Class AAA rankings of the fall from the New York State Sportswriters Association.
Yet it's clear that the Northstars' main threat in the area AAA ranks comes from Baldwinsville, who again pushed C-NS last Tuesday night at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
Still, the Northstars won it 2-1, a margin as narrow as the 1-0 victory earned in last November's Section III final, and it was Abby Mackey who again would prove a difference-maker.
Right from the outset the Bees were under serious pressure, forced into conceding corner kicks which C-NS kept taking among a string of chances.
Only one of them, by Mackey, found the net, and when B'ville's Beverly Marinelli scored off a feed from Gia Marano the two teams found themselves even 1-1 going to the break.
The second half brought more defense and more Northstars set pieces – a total of 15 corner kicks plus other attacks, though the Bees' defense deftly turned most of them away, limiting C-NS to just five direct shots.
Mackey returned, though, and with 10 minutes left she took a pass and, even with a defender draped over her, launched a 20-yard shot past Isla Hudson which proved the game-winner.
As C-NS made its way to Oneonta's Wright National Soccer Complex last weekend for more tournament action, Liverpool was doing the same right after it faced Jamesville-DeWitt and lost 2-0 to the Red Rams, who took 14 shots to Liverpool's three. When at Oneonta both C-NS and Liverpool won their openers, the Northstars blanking host Oneonta 10-0 behind Emery Kozdemba's three-goal hat trick as Mackey got two goals and two assists. Sloane Raymond added a goal and two assists, with Evelyn Maglente, Gianna Melfi and Adalaide Svoboda also finding the net. hen the two sides swept the weekend as on Sunday it was C-NS defeating Chenango Forks 4-1 with a big first-half surge led by Raymond, who had a three-goal hat trick. Svoboda had other goal as Liverpool edged Athens (Pennsylvania) 1-0 on Emilie Masterson's second-half goal, assisted by Gabriella Gonzales.
