LIVERPOOL – Maybe the Baldwinsville football team has not made it all the way back to the high level it expects on an annual basis – but it’s getting closer.
The Bees’ hard-fought 20-14 victory at Liverpool Friday night was, in the words of senior captain Dan Ewald, “an extremely satisfying win” that moved B’ville to 3-0 on the season and 2-0 in area Class AA competition.
It also sets up a much bigger game next Friday when the Bees welcome reigning three-time sectional champion Cicero-North Syracuse to Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, with first place in the league at stake.
Of course, the rivalry between B’ville and Liverpool is always a special one, and a loud, overflow crowd found itself at LHS Stadium, glad to see what it could not earlier this year.
Back in the abbreviated spring campaign, these two sides had met and the Warriors won, 7-0, maintaining, at the time, the upper hand – something B’ville was determined to turn around.
But it was Liverpool again getting out in front on this night, surprising the Bees midway through the first quarter when, on third-down-and-long, quarterback Jalen Graham sprinted up the middle and went 59 yards to the end zone.
For the rest of the half, though, the Bees’ defense did not allow a single first down, giving its offense ample time to get on track – which it did with a pair of patient scoring marches.
Using up seven-plus minutes bridging the first and second quarters, B’ville drove 89 yards and utilized direct snaps to running back Eagan Lehman for big gains twice on that march, though it was Sam Mellinger going two yards for the touchdown.
Lehman, who led his team with 62 yards on 12 carries, did score on a three-yard run late in the half to cap another time-consuming drive, though it was through the air that the Bees kept it alive as Caden Cox made key completions to Mellinger and Caleb Paul.
Leading 14-7 at halftime, B’ville saw that margin vanish thanks to Liverpool’s Jahmir Boutwell, who returned the second-half kickoff 38 yards and then, also taking direct snaps, peeled off a 34-yard run right before scoring from eight yards out.
Again, though, the Bees answered big plays with methodical precision. Using up more than seven minutes of clock, it mixed passes and runs, no play more important than Cox’s 11-yard rollout pass to Griffin Killian on fourth-and-10.
Cox, who completed seven of 10 passes for 94 yards, capped the drive with a one-yard TD plunge, and while the extra point was missed, it turned out that B’ville didn’t need anything more.
All through the fourth quarter, Liverpool would get tripped up by its own mistakes, committing six penalties, including two roughing-the-kicker personal fouls.
Meanwhile, the Bees stayed turnover-free and made a critical fourth-down stop as the Warriors’ 40 with 1:29 left. Vincent Samoraj had a team-best six tackles, with Ewald adding five tackles as Lehman and Amari Akins both had four tackles.
Now it’s the Bees against C-NS, who after a season-opening defeat to Clifton (New Jersey) has handled Nottingham and Utica Proctor by a combined 70-14 margin the last two weeks.
Plus, the Northstars return to a stadium where it earned, arguably, its most memorable victory in program history – the 2019 sectional Class AA semifinal where it erased a 21-point halftime deficit to stun Liverpool 35-28.
Against C-NS, said head coach Carl Sanfilippo, “we have to be disciplined and do everything correctly.”
