A theme of recent play for the Baldwinsville girls soccer team was seeing a familiar opponent push them hard, often beyond regulation into the 20 minutes of overtime.
This happened for the third time in league play last Thursday night at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, where the Bees nearly saw its Senior Night festivities spoiled – but thanks to two non-seniors, B’ville was able to get past Cicero-North Syracuse 3-1.
These teams had met Sept. 18 at Archie Hall Stadium, with B’ville falling behind early, and needing to rally to pull out a 2-1 win over the Northstars while most of its defensive starters were out.
Now, back home, the pattern repeated itself for a while, even to the point of the same C-NS player, Ashlyn Slate, got her team’s goal, only this took place late in the first half and it remained 1-0 going to halftime.
Early in the second half, Simone Neivel converted and pulled the Bees even, and it stayed that way the rest of regulation despite plenty of chances on both ends.
Now the Bees were in OT, just like it was two times the week before, when it beat Fayetteville-Manlius and tied West Genesee. Once more, B’ville would respond well to the extra pressure.
Off a corner kick early in the first 10-minute period, Hannah Mimas poured in the go-ahead goal. Neivel, who assisted on that play, passed it again to Mimas a few minutes later and the talented sophomore converted her 15th goal of the season.
Having survived this battle, B’ville would go to the Wright National Soccer Complex in Oneonta over the weekend, starting with Saturday’s game against Elmira (Section IV), where a pair of quick strikes led to a 2-1 victory over the Express.
Just eight minutes into the game, Mimas assisted on Hannah Jackowski’s goal, but B’ville maintained the pressure and, five minutes later, made it 2-0 as Mimas scored.
Elmira pulled within one just before halftime, but the Bees’ defense made sure that the Express didn’t catch up, goalies Jenna Boutilier and Isabella Cartier combining to make 10 saves.
Then, facing another Section IV foe, Chenango Forks, on Sunday, the Bees saw its 12-game unbeaten streak ended in a 2-1 defeat to the Blue Devils, who scored twice in the first half to negate Neivel’s goal and hung on late. Between them, Boutilier and Cartier had 12 saves.
B’ville still has some regular-season work left this week, hosting Liverpool Tuesday before going to Fayetteville-Manlius Thursday night, the latter a major test that could preview the Section III Class AA final later this month.
