Regardless of the way they get there, it’s almost a given that, when the Baldwinsville boys soccer team takes on Cicero-North Syracuse, it will be close.
Such was the case again last Tuesday night at the Gillette Road complex, where the Bees fell behind, went in front and then got caught during a thrilling second half before fighting the Northstars to a 2-2 draw.
These same two teams had met two weeks earlier at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, neither one finding the net in a 0-0 draw. And they stayed that way through the first half of the rematch, too.
But C-NS converted less than three minutes into that frame with Austin Mizell’s goal, assisted by Evan Gakeler, to break the long scoreless stalemate between the two sides.
B’ville tied it eight minutes later, and then seized a 2-1 lead off a successful corner kick as Tyler Luciano and Evan Ingersoll earned the goals, while Josh Doback picked up an assist.
As it has done many times this fall, though, C-NS got a late conversion, tying it again with 7:09 left thanks to its own successful conversion of a corner kick, Cameron Houser finding the net off a feed from Nolan Byrnes.
Following that, the Bees and Northstars went through the rest of regulation, and 20 tense minutes of overtime without settling anything.
From there, B’ville traveled to Skaneateles for the Finger Lakes Invitational, which began Friday with the Bees taking on Canisius, from the Buffalo area. Against the Crusaders, B’ville lost a 2-1 decision, falling behind 1-0 at halftime and, despite Mason Soeder’s goal, watching as Canisius also found the net and held on. Andrew Hahn and Donovan Moore combined to make 10 saves.
Now the Bees had to face Henninger in Saturday’s consolation round after the Black Knights lost to host Skaneateles 3-1. Here, one outburst was all that B’ville needed to earn a 2-0 victory.
Before Henninger could settle down, the Bees had a two-goal margin established when Josh Doback and Connor Carhart found the net, with assists credited to Soeder and Alex Pompo.
Try as it could, the Black Knights could not answer, thwarted by an improving Bees defense and by a sensational effort from Moore, who played the entire game in the net and stopped all 12 shots he faced.
All of this left the Bees with a 4-3-2 record going into Thursday’s home game against Nottingham. B’ville meets Section II foe Niskayuna on Saturday afternoon.
