CENTRAL NEW YORK – Shut out six times in its first seven games, the East Syracuse Minoa field hockey was beginning to wonder if a breakthrough was ever going to take place in the 2024 season. But it finally did last Saturday when the Spartans traveled to Cortland and put in a first-quarter goal – which held up the rest of the afternoon and led to a 1-0 victory over the Purple Tigers. Back on Wednesday night, ESM again again did not get on the board last Wednesday in a 1-0 defeat to Whitesboro, a game that also had its only goal in the first quarter. Take 20 shots in a game and, in most instances, a team is successful because it is constantly putting pressure on the opposing defense. Yet even when Fayetteville-Manlius did this in last Wednesday’s game against visiting Baldwinsville, it did not lead to victory as the Hornets fell 3-2 to the Bees. These same two teams had met just 11 days earlier at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium and had gone to overtime before B’ville pulled it out 2-1, all the motivation that F-M needed for the rematch. Carlye Bryant, who entered the game with 12 goals, added goals 13 and 14 to that total, but everything else got turned back by a busy B’ville defense constantly under attack. Stopping 18 of the 20 shots she faced, Bees goalie Chloe Butler inspired the rest of the Bees, especially Abigail Mantione, who put in her own pair of goals and got help from Leah Kalil, who also converted. All this followed last Monday’s 5-1 defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse, who remained undefeated with Nicole Conklin notching a three-goal hat trick, F-M kept off the board except for Elizabeth Kilmer’s second-quarter goal. Only Emma Dobrovech’s 14 saves kept it from getting more lopsided. In Saturday’s non-league game against Clinton F-M, who would then be off until an Oct. 7 visit from Liverpool, reclaimed some of its potency late in the game, yet still lost 4-3 to the Comets. The Hornets led 1-0 going to the final period when it added two more goals, only to see Clinton strike four times, three of them by Leah Randall, whose hat trick was augmented by Gretchen Grimm’s goal and two assists. Thus, F-M lost its fourth straight game even though Kilmer, Isa Crain and Elyssa Hollister all put in goals, with Bryant getting an assist and Olivia Mark making eight saves.