It’s pretty safe to assume that the Baldwinsville boys soccer team felt great about its play during the opening week of the 2018 season.
On the way to the title of its own kickoff tournament Aug. 27 and 29, the Bees blanked Fulton and Rome Free Academy by a combined 7-0 margin, sending a message to future foes of how it could do on both ends of the field.
And little would change when B’ville started Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division play on Sept. 1 at Nottingham. Again the Bees got a shutout, and again it was potent as it beat the Bulldogs 5-0.
Steadily, B’ville kept pushing its attack, so that it led 3-0 at halftime, and kept on building the margin as five different players scored and eight had a part in those scoring plays.
The goals went to Josh Price, Brennan Walsh, Jason Hahn, Michael Allen and Jacob Way, with Ben Rabe, Tyler Johnson and Teklu Habtesion joining Way in the assist column. B’ville took 15 shots to Nottingham’s two.
This started a stretch of three straight matches against city foes, with the Bees hosting Henninger last Tuesday and getting its closest call yet, having to go all 80 minutes to sweat out a 1-0 win over the Black Knights.
Through a scoreless first half, B’ville had most of the good chances, yet could not get anything past Henninger goalkeeper Lubenda Echeni, who would finish the night with nine saves.
Staying patient, the Bees kept attacking. Finally, with 14:14 left in regulation, Price fed it to Way, who slid the ball past Lubenda for the game-winner.
Still at home Friday, B’ville faced Corcoran, and it proved far less stressful than it was with Henninger as the Bees earned its fifth consecutive shutout, completing its city sweep with an 8-0 win over the Cougars.
Not only did B’ville get four goals in each half, it had seven different players convert, with only Hahn scoring twice.
Price, Walsh, Way, Tyler Johnson, Vincent Benedeti and Sean O’Key took turns earning goals, with Rabe and Sungwon Chat each getting two assists. Single assists went to Griffin Seifritz and Nolan Murphy.
B’ville would, on Monday, face a West Genesee side that had just claimed back-to-back overtime wins over Fayetteville-Manlius and Henninger, this before Thursday night’s key early-season test at Liverpool.
