BALDWINSVILLE – A month full of strong performances has the Baldwinsville football team back in the Section III Class AA semifinals, with yet another opportunity to end Cicero-North Syracuse’s reign.
The Bees got here by putting away Fayetteville-Manlius 42-21 in Friday night’s opening-round game at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, the final margin not reflecting how lopsided it was in the first half.
Five different times in the first two quarters, B’ville found the end zone, building a 35-0 margin that allowed it to relax a bit in the second half as most of the Hornets’ production came with the starters out.
Having put a scare into unbeaten Christian Brothers Academy in a 20-17 defeat a week earlier, the Bees still had confidence from that effort and took full advantage of the drier, warmer conditions it had against F-M.
Mostly, B’ville stuck with its ground game, which proved efficient and effective. Kaleb Young ran for 127 yards on 12 carries and scored once, while TeiShawn Wade had 105 yards on just six carries, twice finding the end zone.
Greg Marinelli, who ran for another touchdown, only threw six passes all night, completing three of them, including a long TD pass to Trevor Valenti, one of his two catches for 46 yards.
Collectively, the Bees’ defense made a string of early stops to keep the Hornets from getting established, Judson Ferris leading the way with nine tackles. Brady Garcia added seven tackles, with Dylan Garcia and Aaron Clark earning six tackles apiece and Joe Saraceni recovering a fumble.
And this leads B’ville back to C-NS. Having won the last five sectional AA titles, the Northstars stopped the Bees in this same round 21-7 a year ago and also prevailed 45-21 when they met in September at Pelcher-Arcaro.
C-NS, like the Bees, easily won its opening-round playoff game, 56-24 over Rome Free Academy. Now these two will decide who advances to the Nov. 12 sectional final at the JMA Wireless Dome against CBA or Liverpool.
