Even with all of the tough Class AA foes still looming ahead of them, the Baldwinsville girls soccer team may not have a more impressive regular-season effort that what it put together last Saturday at Jamesville-DeWitt.
Against a Red Rams side that has won seven consecutive Section III Class AA championships and went to the state final a year ago, the Bees unleashed a diverse, aggressive attack in the early stages and took control, never relinquishing it on the way to a 4-2 victory.
It helped, no doubt, that B’ville already had three wins in the books, including its victory in the Aug. 30-31 Clarence Tournament in suburban Buffalo. But J-D had played twice, knocking off Fayetteville-Manlius and New Hartford, and had many stars back from its 2015 run, including leading scorer Alex Catanzarite.
B’ville didn’t care for any of this. Instead, it tore through J-D’s defenses and seized a 3-1 advantage by halftime, adding another goal in the late stages to thwart the Rams’ comeback attempts.
More impressive was the way things were spread out. Four different players – Simone Neivel, Katie Pascale, Kelsey Delola and Abby Smith – earned those four goals, with Mackenzie Schaffner joining Pascale in the assist column.
Even with a solid defensive effort, B’ville couldn’t keep J-D off the board as Catanzarite and Grace Dimkopoulos added goals. But it did enough as Mackenzie Hanna, in goal, finished with seven saves.
