Liverpool boys go 1-2 before return of Andreo Ash

by PhiL bLACkWELL

For everyone associated with the Liverpool boys basketball team, the entire season, and all of its possibilities, hinged on when junior forward Andreo Ash returned.

Injured in late January, Ash missed several games, including last Sunday’s rematch of the overtime battle in the 2022 Class AA regional final against Albany’s Green Tech.

Despite great defense, the Warriors lost, 59-53, to the Eagles, with Bruce Wingate picking up 20 points and Jah’Deuir Reese earning 12 points as Fred Fowler finished with nine points.

Back in league play last Wednesday night, Liverpool took on Nottingham – and suffered its first league defeat of the season, falling 6648 to the Bulldogs.

With Ash, the Warriors had beat Notting- ham 57-46 a week earlier, but without him it had a difficult time putting up a consistent attack against a Bulldogs defense that made Liverpool struggle for every single basket.

Wingate did get 14 points and Jeff Manuel added 10 points, while Reese had nine points. All of them were topped by Bulldogs forward Steyvon Jones, who struck for 28 points helped by 18 points from Malachi McCurty.

But then Ash returned on Friday night for Liverpool’s game at Baldwinsville, where things quickly got back on track as the Warriors pulled away to beat the Bees 72-43.

Glad to be back at full strength, Liverpool jumped out 21-3 on B’ville in a lopsided first quarter and watched as Ash would pick up 20 points, including a pair of 3-pointers.

Offering plenty of support, Wingate had 11 points, with Reese and Fowler getting 10 points apiece. No B’ville player scored in

C-NS bowlers get sweep of Liverpool

by PhiL bLACkWELL

For the second time this winter, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool bowling teams went head-to-head, this time for a match last Tuesday at Strike-NSpare Lanes.

And here it was the Northstars winning on both sides, taking a 5-2 decision in the girls match to go with a 7-0 sweep of the boys match.

Terry Miller stepped up and led the C-NS boys, shooting games of 215, 235 and 200 for a season-best 650 series as Nehemiah Bachman had a 244 game in his 551 set.

Jacob Calabria’s steady 581 series concluded with a 213 and opened with a 195. Garrett Arnold, closing with a 204, had a

554 series as Jonathan Artz got a threegame total of 466.

To lead Liverpool, Wes Lell shot 197, 238 and 188 as part of a 623 series. Zach Doing was close behind, his 191 and 199 part of a 566 series as Jackson Allen got a 481 set.

Meanwhile, in the girls match C-NS got the best individual series from Trinity Short, whose games of 188 and 181 were part of a 525 series that beat the 496 set (187 high game) from Liverpool’s Kenzi Ormsby.

Jennifer Draper helped the Northstars with a 471 series that finished with a 481, while Cella Wood had a 372 series ahead of Melody Schwartz (353 series) and Tayor Rutter (335 series). Sara Conover put up a 435 series for the Warriors.

C-NS ice hockey gains split, shuts out F-M

by PhiL bLACkWELL

All season long, the Cicero-North Syracuse ice hockey team had fought to get above the .500 mark and improve its place in the Division I standings.

When the Northstars visited State Fair Coliseum last Tuesday night, it took on the Fayetteville-Manlius side that used to call the Twin Rinks home before moving across town.

Here, C-NS put together one of its best all-around games of the season, blanking the Hornets 4-0 as it took charge in the second period, scoring three times after a scoreless first.

Hayden Scott converted twice, with Drew Matyasik and Tyler Milewski getting the other goals. Andrew Davis, Tanner Long and Cole Prevost had one assist apiece.

F-M had plenty of its own opportunities throughout the night, but kept getting turned back by a stingy C-NS defense as goaltender Leyton Sullivan stopped all 30 shots he faced.

Two nights later, C-NS lost a 6-3 nonleague decision to Oswego, the Buccaneers grabbing a 3-2 edge after an active first period and blanking the Northstars in the second to gain control.

No one on C-NS could stop Oswego’s Ian Cady, who piled up five goals. Scott, Kyle Debejian and Nate Bustin found the net for the Northstars, each of them also earning assists.

In its only game last week, Liverpool had to face a Baldwinsville side that had won 11 in a row and climbed to no. 10 in the state Division I rankings.

The Bees did get its 12th straight win, putting away the Warriors 5-1 despite another stellar performance in goal by James Welch.

All told, Welch would make 42 saves, but the Bees would start to solve him in the second period, a trio of goals producing a 3-0 advantage.

Two more goals followed in the third as, once again, B’ville’s production spread out. Five different players – Brayden Penafeather-Stevenson, Garrett Sutton, Mitch Burlingame, Nick Cary and Drew Flynn – earned those five goals.

Jamie Gipe chimed in with two goals. Single assists went to Kaleb Deluca, Brady Garcia and Zach Treichler as the Warriors only managed a third-period goal by Evan Haskins, with an assist from Cole Bradley.

Liverpool girls hoops gets sweep of Bishop Ludden

by PhiL bLACkWELL

Twice in as many weeks, the Liverpool girls basketball team turned back the challenge of Bishop Ludden and, by doing so, reinforced its status as the Class AA favorites heading into February.

In the second of these games last Tuesday night, the state Class AA no. 9-ranked Warriors found the Gaelic Knights far tougher than in their Jan. 16 meeting, but a big start to the second half, along with a well-balanced attack, made the difference in a 74-62 victory.

They played at a quick pace from the outset, and Ludden, trailing 17-11 after one period, made up ground in the second quarter, only trailing 33-31 at the break.

Yet the Warriors overwhelmed Ludden during a 27-11 third-period push. Naveah Wingate and Kaylyn Sweeney had 18 points apiece and A’briyah Cunningham, with 16 points, was close behind, while Jakeira Stackhouse finished with 11 points.

For the most part, Liverpool limited Amarah Streiff’s shots as the Colgatebound senior, the Gaelic Knights’ all-time leading scorer,k had 24 points, but 11 of them were free throws. Bridget Dunham got 12 points, with Ava Carpenter adding 11 points. double figures as Matt Young led with nine points.

Two nights later, the Warriors were back home to face Baldwinsville, and the team offered its own tributes to the late Ava Wood, a B’ville student who lost her life the week before, with scoreboard messages and special T-shirts.

As to the game, Liverpool all but decided it in the first quarter, zooming out to a 25-3 advantage with near-perfect basketball on both ends of the floor.

It got more lopsided from there, the Warriors eventually prevailing as Wingate got 16 points and three others – Sweeney, Cunningham and Janea Hamilton-Brown – earned 10 points apiece. Gianna Washington had eight points as Stackhouse and Grace Sleeth added six points apiece.

Having watched all this, Cicero-North Syracuse finally made it back to league play last Friday at West Genesee and ran right over the Wildcats in a 55-20 romp.

Leading 19-5 after one period, the Northstars kept adding to that margin led by Brianna Weaver, who finished with 14 points. Kathleen Taru had 10 points as Jillie Howell got nine points.

Seeing all this, Cicero-North Syracuse had to prove that it could hold its own againt a top area Class AA contender, and would get the chance last Fridaytwhen state no. 19ranked West Genesee visited.

Having lost 77-55 to the Wildcats late in December, the Northstars threatened to reverse that outcome with a stirring second-half comeback, only to get answered as WG prevailed 59-47.

All through the first half and deep into the third quarter, C-NS was shut down, and found itself trailing 40-20, but Benedict nearly erased all of it.

Netting 13 of his game-high 27 points, Benedict sparked a 17-1 run where the Northstars held WG without a field goal for more than five minutes.

Absorbing this, the Wildcats then went on an 11-0 run of its own to start the fourth quarter and put the game away, led by Christian Cain (15 points) and Sincere Smith, who had 11 points starting in place of Christian Amica.

Before this, C-NS rode a huge performance from Benedict to an 86-65 victory over Section IV’s Binghamton last Tuesday night, a game where the Northstars actually trailed 22-16 through one quarter.

But a 27-11 push before halftime got C-NS in front for good, and it outscored the Patriots 24-7 in the final period as Benedict set a new career mark, amassing 38 points.

He didn’t work alone, either, as Reece Congel and Terrance Coppack got 12 points apiece and Michael Gallo, with 10 points, also hit double figures.