Three times in a four-day span, the Baldwinsville girls soccer team twice saw its hopes for an undefeated regular season put at risk. Each time, the Bees escaped the trap, eventually building a 15-0-1 mark in advance of its Section III Class AA title defense.
The close calls started during Columbus Day weekend, with the Bees pulling out a pair of 2-1 victories – first over Buffalo’s Mount Mercy Academy on Oct. 8, and then doing so again two days later against New Hartford.
Against Mount Mercy, B’ville was down 1-0 at halftime before escaping. It was a bit different against New Hartford since the Bees scored first on Kelsey Delola’s goal, assisted by Carolyn Brussel.
The Spartans pulled even, 1-1, just before halftime as Micaela Honsinger scored, unassisted. Between them, New Hartford goalies Gabby Hobika and Abby Buchholz had 11 saves, but couldn’t keep the Bees from getting in front in the second half as Simone Neivel put in the eventual game-winner, Addison Hornsey earning the assist.
Tough as those games were, both were against opponents B’ville didn’t have to worry about in the post-season. On the other hand, West Genesee is a possible playoff foe, and had the Bees in some trouble last Tuesday night before a well-timed goal turned it all around and led to a 4-1 victory over the Wildcats.
In their first meeting Sept. 23 in Camillus, the Bees only prevailed by a 1-0 margin, so that provided some confidence to WG for the rematch. Even more was attained by the Wildcats when Haley Elsey broke through the Bees’ defenses and, off a feed from Emma Parry, put it past Mackenzie Hanna.
Had that margin stayed until halftime, B’ville may have faced some real stress – but instead, Katie Pascale, again with an assist from Hornsey, scored with 3.7 seconds left in the half to tie it, 1-1.
From there the Bees took off, controlling the second half and getting goals from Neivel, Leah Burrer and Graisa Madden, with Hornsey building her total to three assists. All of this overcame 11 saves by Wildcats goalie Liz Croft.
Fueled by this win, B’ville ventured to Cicero-North Syracuse Thursday night, looking for something at least similar to the 5-1 beating it gave to the Northstars late in September.
And that’s just about what happened, the Bees prevailing 5-0 to complete its unbeaten run through the entire regular season by taking over in the second half after only leading 1-0 through 40 minutes.
Mackenzie Schaffner led the late charge, netting a pair of goals, but she was far from alone. Pascale, Adiranna Sposato and Kaitlin Kelly each scored once, with Neivel earning a pair of assists. Hornsey and Madden got one assist apiece.
Combined, Hanna and Julia George made five saves for B’ville’s ninth shutout of the season, but first since it blanked Fayetteville-Manlius 2-0 on Oct. 4.
Now B’ville, as the top seed in the Section III Class AA playoffs, would get right into the fray on Tuesday when it hosted no. 8 seed Syracuse United. Win that, and the Bees would wait until Thursday to find out if its sectional semifinal is against no. 4 seed West Genesee (who stunned Liverpool 1-0 last Thursday right after it lost to B’ville) or no. 5 seed Fayetteville-Manlius.
