Clear skies or rain, clean turf or muddy quagmire – to the Baldwinsville football team, it doesn’t matter, as long as victory is attained.
And now it’s five straight wins for the state Class AA no. 7-ranked Bees following Friday night’s 21-7 conquest of Cicero-North Syracuse at a drenched Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
It was Senior Night, and Homecoming – but more important to B’ville, it was a showdown for first place in the Class AA-1 division.
Both the Bees and Northstars came into the game with 2-0 league marks, and CNS felt particularly good after rallying from a 16-point deficit to stun CBA a week earlier.
Meanwhile, B’ville was trying to feed off the big wins of the previous two weeks over CBA and Liverpool. In the end, they ended up combining aspects of both those inspired efforts to get past CNS.
They also got a soaking, constant rain that started falling long before kickoff, and persisted for the entire game, quickly turning the Pelcher-Arcaro grass into mud and causing all kinds of early trouble.
Both of the game’s first two snaps were fumbles. B’ville went first, Niko Manning unable to handle the snap, but CNS gave it right back on a dropped handoff that Manning, playing defense, recovered.
In fact, the Bees committed three turnovers in the first quarter. Malik Burks saw his halfback option pass get picked off by Matt Logudice, and a second fumble led to CNS getting on the board early in the second quarter.
Logudice set up the score, catching a 13-yard pass from Ryan Lacey, and Tom Padula converted on a two-yard touchdown run.
From that point on, though, the Bees’ defense shut out the Northstars, holding them to 99 total yards for the night. And by taking care of the ball (no more turnovers) in the wet conditions, B’ville gradually took over, even if it wasn’t reflected on the scoreboard right away.
It took Manning throwing a 24-yard rollout pass to Parker Kiff to launch the Bees on a 76-yard march after Padula’s TD. Burks went the final 13 yards for the score, but a missed extra point by Mark Stanard kept CNS in front 7-6.
Stanard also missed a 24-yard field goal just before halftime, after the Northstars stopped the Bees inside its own 10-yard line.
None of this proved discouraging, though, for the Bees gradually won the battle for field position in the third quarter. An ill-timed motion penalty that wiped out a long Blake Monday run on a reverse helped, too.
B’ville went in front for good late in the third quarter. From the Northstars’ 36-yard line, on a perfectly executed draw play, Burks took the handoff at the last moment and tore down the left side of the field for the go-ahead touchdown. It was the big highlight of a night where Burks worked hard for his 223 yards on 36 carries. For the season, Burks has 1,256 yards.
Midway through the fourth quarter, CNS went for it on fourth down near mid-field, but the Bees’ defense rose again, stopping the fake punt.
Again with great field position, the Bees applied the finishing touch, using another Manning rollout pass to Kiff (20 yards) to set up the B’ville quarterback’s one-yard TD sneak with 3:38 to play.
As B’ville visits Central Square next Friday, CNS is back home at Bragman Stadium to face Rome Free Academy, who is 1-2 in league play after a loss to CBA and might miss the playoffs for the first time in 30 years if the Northstars beat them, too.