Not that long ago, the Baldwisnville boys soccer team was a traditional power accustomed to winning – and at the same time, accustomed to finding heartache once the post-season rolled around.
But that’s all changed now.
The Bees are now three-time Section III Class AA champions, courtesy of a 2-1 victory over Fayetteville-Manlius Tuesday night at West Genesee High School.
Head coach Tim Scheemaker said this victory was satisfying because of the way his players overcame early-season obstacles to finish on top again.
“I knew we were capable (of winning a sectional title), but we had to fix some things,” Scheemaker said.”The kids showed a lot of character and heart. They worked hard, and we got some breaks, too.”
B’ville’s third title was, by far, the most surprising.
It needed to survive tense penalty-kick shoot-outs twice in the sectional tournament – first against CBA in the quarterfinals, then against Cicero-North Syracuse in the semifinals.
This brought the Bees to F-M. In search of its first sectional title since 2005, the Hornets had beaten B’ville twice this fall, by slim 3-2 and 1-0 margins.
Yet the final would prove, again, the old adage of how difficult it is to beat the same team three times in a season.
The first time B’ville made an attack, 4:35 into the game, Adam Lauko took a feed from Ben Ramin and beat F-M goalie Ken Chapman low, putting the Bees ahead 1-0.
F-M didn’t take long to respond as, 11:49 into the game, freshman Halie Marr passed from the right to Jim Forbes, who beat Andrew Coughlin for the tying goal.
That would be the last goal Coughlin would allow. For much of the season, Coughlin had traded starts with Alex Bono, but Coughlin got chosen for the playoffs because, said Scheemaker, he seemed a bit more confident.
Now, combined with a vastly improved defense that included Brandyn Peters, Matt Boyle and Kyle Mulligan, Coughlin frustrated all of F-M’s charges for the rest of the night.
“Defensively, we made fewer mistakes (than earlier this season), and gave ourselves a chance to win,” Scheemaker said.
Still, it remained 1-1 deep into the second half, as the Hornets proved just as effective turning away anything that B’ville tried to establish.
With 11:18 left, that all changed. Off a throw-in, Chapman had a difficult time hanging on to the ball, and Lauko jumped in quickly, taking a low shot that found the net and put B’ville ahead for good.
All through those last 11-plus minutes, B’ville stayed aggressive, nearly scoring again on Ben Ramin’s deep run to the net, and never let F-M get close to forcing overtime.
As B’ville advanced to Saturday’s Class AA regional final against Section II champion Shenendehowa, F-M pondered the painful end of a 16-2-1 season, and will see a talented class of 13 seniors depart.
