SYRACUSE – In a matter of a couple of minutes, the joyful possibility of the Cicero-North Syracuse girls soccer team reaching the state Class AAA final four turned into stunned sadness. The Northstars had weathered a long, tense Class AAA regional final with Section II champion Saratoga Springs Saturday at Nottingham High School, playing the Blue Streaks to a 1-1 tie and then making it through 30 minutes of overtime. Since someone had to advance, it now went to penalty kicks, and C-NS got an immediate advantage when Natalie LaPoint deflected Ava Goodman’s opening shot just enough to have it go off the left post. One by one, four C-NS players – Addy Mackey, Alexa Belknap, Brianna Melfi and Emery Kozdemba – then made the lonely walk to the spot and then calmly put their shots into the net. Saratoga needed to make three consecutive attempts and did so, then got a fourth from Emma Murray in the fifth round. Still, it would be over if Katalina Lawrence converted on the Northstars’ fifth try. Lawrence, whose goal beat Baldwinsville in the sectional final a week earlier, fired to the right side. Guessing just right and diving at just the right moment, Blue Streaks goalie Olivia Goodman made a spectacular save, keeping it out of the net. Now it was single-round elimination. Elated by Goodman’s stop, Saratoga’s Zoe Mahar converted. Moments later, Lilah Kelly tried to answer it – and Goodman turned it away. By that 5-4 margin, the Northstars’ remarkable season, one fueled by a youthful roster with just two seniors and one junior, concluded just short of making it to state championship weekend. For the most part, what had carried C-NS this far in the post-season was a tremendous defense which had shut out both B’ville and Fayetteville-Manlius by 1-0 margins in the Section III playoffs and nearly did the same with Saratoga. Lawrence, Melfi, Belknap and Mackey were all sensational in the way they surrounded LaPoint and forced Saratoga’s forwards short and wide through most of regulation, allowing them to run toward the net but not get too close. Proving just as sound on its back line, the Blue Streaks kept it 0-0 until near the midway point of the second half. Eighth-grader Sloane Raymond made a timely pass to the middle and Evelyn Magente ripped a shot into the top center of the net out of Olivia Goodman’s reach. Now Saratoga had to pick up the pressure and did so, its attack growing in volume until, with three minutes left in regulation, it forced a corner kick and delivered a perfect ball to the middle that Ava Goodman headed past LaPoint. Forced into OT duty, the Northstars had its share of chances to win it but, in particularly the second extra period, had to survive some close calls, from a point-blank LaPoint save on a tough shot from Lucia Devito to a pair of corner kicks in the last two minutes that were turned back. Then all went well in penalty kicks until Olivia Goodman’s big pair of stops, which ended one C-NS season but gave the big group of returning Northstars for 2025 a lot of motivation to get to work hoping to reach this level again – and go further.