LIVERPOOL – Just to have any kind of season after the long wait through a quiet fall and winter was a triumph in itself for the Baldwinsville football team.
But the combination of a young roster and COVID-19 interruptions took a toll, as the Bees managed to play just three games, only winning once, 20-0 over Corcoran on April 9.
Otherwise, B’ville was on the receiving end of a pair of shutouts, one by Cicero-North Syracuse back on March 19, and again a month later when it fell 7-0 to Liverpool last Thursday night.
The two long-time neighbors and rivals gathered at LHS Stadium long after they were supposed to collide late in March, when a single positive COVID-19 test on the Liverpool roster sidelined both sides for a 10-day quarantine.
Eventually, they would gather, but by then the Warriors had made up its other game (beating Corcoran) and also topped Henninger a week before it faced the Bees.
In between, there was the much-talked about April 9 clash between Liverpool and C-NS where the Northstars won 21-0 but it got overshadowed by a broken angle suffered by Warriors quarterback Brendan Mancuso and penalties and fights which cut short the game early in the fourth quarter.
B’ville was removed from all this, and its game with Liverpool was a quieter affair as chilly, windy conditions led to few passes attempted by either side.
For the most part, the Bees’ defense was stellar, keeping the Warriors out of the end zone despite a series of drives. All that Liverpool could convert was a second-quarter touchdown by Malachi Upshur.
Ultimately, Upshur gained 157 yards on 26 carries, while on the other end Liverpool’s defense constantly frustrated B’ville and prevented it from finding the end zone, most notably a fourth-quarter stop where the Warriors stopped the Bees two yards short of the goal line.
A large returning cast of players should make the Bees a tougher opponent when practices start again just four months from now for the fall 2021 season.
