An up-and-down regular season that the Baldwinsville field hockey team endured was all worth it by the time the Bees claimed its second Section III Class A title in three years.
But the program’s first state championship remains elusive as B’ville was topped 3-1 by Guilderland in Wednesday afternoon’s opening round of the regional playoffs at Gloversville High School.
At least in this instance, it was the Bees that carried the experience advantage. Several of B’ville’s players had faced state tournament pressure before as part of the 2017 team that reached the state final four before falling to Ward Melville in the semifinals.
Guilderland, by contrast, had never won a championship before the Lady Dutch topped Shenendehowa in overtime in Sunday’s Section II final, just as B’ville was using two late goals by eighth-grader Julia Schultz to put away Rome Free Academy in its title game.
Right away, Guilderland applied pressure to B’ville, and after a series of missed opportunities, the Dutch went in front 1-0 with 12:47 left in the first half as Hannah Risko converted off a feed from Jess Coton.
Less than seven minutes later, the margin doubled, again with Risko, whose goal this time was assisted by Ava Thompson. Though the Bees’ defense settled down from there, it still went to halftime trailing 2-0.
Not content with this margin, the Dutch got a goal from Sophia Sericolo with 18:30 to play. Only here did B’ville, down 3-0, begin to pick up its own attack, Emma Brushingham breaking up the shutout as she scored six minutes after Sericolo converted.
A lot of time remained, but Guilderland held on from here, advancing to a regional final against Section IV champion Maine-Endwell.
Meanwhile, B’ville pondered an off-season where it would see nine seniors, including Brushingham, Leah Tuch, Sarah Smiley, Mackenzie Dickman, Julia Guidone, Bailey Nicholson, Sarah Dusse, Kendall Corni and Maren Roy, graduate.
That takes care of most of the Bees’ starting lineup, though Julia and Victoria Schultz return for 2020.
