A dynasty has been put in place in Baldwinsville, where the boys soccer Bees have fought its way to three consecutive Section III Class AA championships.
To get four in a row, though, the Bees will need a fair amount of improvement from what it showed during a split of games at the Chittenango Fall Classic during Labor Day weekend.
As an opener, B’ville met Marcellus, the reigning Class B champions. Here, the Bees controlled the flow of the game and possession over the Mustangs, even though the 1-0 winning margin didn’t reflect that domination.
Replacing nine starters (and also with a new head coach in Mark Sunheimer), Marcellus was still finding its rhythm as B’ville relentlessly pushed them. The breakthrough came in the 35th minute, when Frank Vecchio, off a feed from Ben Ramin, beat Mustang goalie Mitch Schoenbrun.
Overall, Schoenbrun would make nine saves and do an impressive job keeping the Bees from pulling away. However, Marcellus did little on the offensive side, barely able to make the Bees’ back line work too hard. Alex Bono only had to make one save.
This sent B’ville to Saturday’s championship game against Fayettville-Manlius, a rematch of the 2009 final won by the Bees.
This time, though, it was the Hornets prevailing by that familiar 1-0 margin, the only goal again coming in the first half as Joe Mahr converted, beating Andrew Coughlin, who got the turn in the net.
In windy conditions, both teams struggled to find any kind of rhythm on the Chittenango turf, combining for just 10 shots – five each.
The defeat left head coach Tim Scheemaker two wins short of reaching 200 for his career – something B’ville could pull off this week if it prevails at Central Square on Wednesday and beats Vestal Saturday in a non-league game at the CNY Sports Center on Jones Road.
