True, it was still mid-September, but what the Baldwinsville girls soccer team was displaying had to thrill fans hoping that the Bees could repeat its state and Section III Class AA titles.
Fresh off its Hall of Fame Tournament win on Sept. 8-9 where it outscored Shaker and Niskayuna a combined 7-2, B’ville, playing its fourth game in six days, dazzled with its skill in last Tuesday’s 3-0 win over West Genesee at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
The Wildcats were off to its own 4-0 start, and possessed a sound defense that, for large portions of the first half, didn’t give B’ville’s forwards much room to move.
Yet when it came to set pieces, the Bees could still deliver a decisive blow. Off a short corner kick midway through the first half, Simone Neivel, teaming with Kelsey Delola, curved a right-footed shot from a sharp left angle into the top right corner of the net.
Neivel’s penalty kick rammed off the crossbar late in the half, but 59 seconds into the second half she made up for it with a second goal similar to the first, only the angle was from the right edge to the top left corner of the net.
Delola returned in the 60th minute to deliver a devastating free kick. From 30 yards out and on the left side, Delola lofted it perfectly at a height that fit inside the crossbar and out of Liz Croft’s reach.
On Thursday, B’ville watched as, in Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division matches, West Genesee handed Cicero-North Syracuse its first defeat 1-0 and Fayetteville-Manlius put away Liverpool 4-1.
Then the Bees were back on the field Friday at Rome Free Academy and put away the Black Knights 5-0, taking less than 10 minutes to get on the board with Hannah Mimas converting on one of her trademark breakaways.
Mimas struck again less than a minute before halftime, putting home the rebound of a Delola free kick. And Delola was involved again in passing to Hannah Johnson for a goal early in the second half.
B’ville made it 4-0 with Delola’s goal off Neivel’s corner kick, and Alex Pelletier chimed in with a late goal. Only an injury to senior defender Fallon Morris put a damper on the contest.
On Tuesday night, the Bees go to Archie Hall Stadium to face C-NS in search of its sixth win in a row before a Thursday trip to Liverpool, the first time these sides have met since B’ville beat the Warriors in the 2017 sectional final.
