What the Baldwinsville boys soccer team accomplished just to reach the state Class AA final four – 19 victories in 20 matches, 17 of them shutouts – will always stand as a special feat in the program’s rich history.
And that’s precisely why the way it came to an end was so startling.
It wasn’t that the Bees took a defeat in Saturday’s state Class AA semifinal at Middletown High School. It was the way it happened, Monroe-Woodbury figuring out what no previous opponent in 2018 could as it solved B’ville’s defense and prevailed 4-1.
What’s more, it all happened after the Bees took an early lead in its third state final four appearance to go with the ones it earned back in 2008 and 2010, neither of which led to a state title.
Throughout this fall, any time B’ville would net the game’s first goal, it amounted to a game-clincher because of the way its back line – Alex Charest, Teklu Habtesion, Jack Branigan, Jared Kantak and goalie Nate Hanna – had protected its own end.
So when Josh Price, drawing out Monroe-Woodbury’s goalie Dylan McDermott on a charge to the net in the 12th minute, flicked the ball into the unoccupied net and gave the Bees a 1-0 lead, that margin seemed even larger.
Yet the Crusaders did not have the same response as so many others had before. In the 19th minute, Connor Paik picked up a pass that made it through the Bees’ defenders and beat Hanna from 12 yards out tying it 1-1.
Right after Hanna robbed M-W’s Nolan Kelly of a go-ahead goal, in the 35th minute Chris Ryan, off a pass from Christ Valle, put it into the net, and the Crusaders were up 2-1, having netted as many goals as all of B’ville’s 20 previous foes.
Still behind early in the second half, the Bees, in the 52nd minute, thought it would pull back even, Tyler Johnson working past McDermott with the ball, ready to score – but stopped by a well-placed Crusaders defender, Joe Natsu, who kicked it away.
It was Nastu who, midway through the second half, hit the free kick that Valle headed into the net to make it 3-1, a backbreaking goal. Jesse Schwartz then scored with 11:23 left to clinch M-W’s spot in the state final against Clarence.
Trying to replicate what B’ville did in 2019 will prove tough without 18 seniors that helped make so much of it possible. From Hanna, Habtesion, Charest and Price to Michael Allen, Jason Hahn, Griffin Seifritz, Ben Rabe and Jacob Way, a superb class graduates.