An important milestone – namely, its first-ever Section III Class A championship – was within the grasp of the Baldwinsville field hockey team, and it seized upon that piece of history with confidence and verve. Up against defending champion Rome Free Academy in Saturday night’s championship game at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, the Bees used an offensive surge early in the second half to beat the Black Knights 3-1 and reach a place no B’ville field hockey side had reached before. “It means the world to us,” said senior Lindsay Varga, who scored twice in the final. “It’s the most incredible thing, to set the bar (higher) for the next couple of years.” Coach James Hanley agreed. “It’s quite the accomplishment,” he said. “We’ve got a real dynamic team.” Only once before, in 2002, had B’ville reached a sectional final, losing that game to Liverpool 4-0. The result here would prove far different, despite RFA’s daunting legacy of success that included nine previous sectional titles. They had split in the regular season, each side winning at home by healthy margins – B’ville 4-0 in early September, RFA 7-1 a month later. It was that latter result, said Varga, that served as a galvanizing force and source of motivation for their encounter in the sectional finals. “It (that 7-1 loss) riled us up a lot,” said Varga.
Aggressive from the opening whistle, B’ville earned two early penalty corners. Off the second of them, just 4:03 into the game, Varga, the team’s leading scorer this season, took a hard shot from the right side that skidded past RFA goalie Danielle Famolaro into the net, and the Bees had a quick 1-0 lead. Flat at the start, the Black Knights took an early time-out, and after it started to attack more. This put the Bees’ defense to work, and with Nicole Piontkowski, Sierra Earle and Andrea Davaro working in the back and offering protection for goalie Lindsay Farrell, RFA’s push was repelled. The action went back and forth until, with 3:47 left in the half, the Black Knights broke in and, off a pass from Stacie Skidmore, Kaysie Gregory crushed a hard, point-blank shot just past Farrell and into the net, tying it 1-1, where it stayed until halftime. During the break, Hanley said he challenged his team to put everything into the remaining time on the field. “I told them we’ve got 30 minutes,” he said. “It’s now or nothing. No complaints, no whining. And they did it.” Just as at the game’s start, B’ville gradually worked its way toward the RFA net, then made the night’s decisive move. Less than four minutes into the second half, Paige Corso saw Famolaro make a diving save on her shot- but seconds later, on a penalty corner, B’ville swarmed the net again and Nicole Bourdon slammed the shot home, putting the Bees back in front 2-1. Just three minutes later, the Bees were back on the doorstep with another penalty corner. Again, several Bees attacked the net at once – and Varga got a stick on the ball, pushing it past Famolaro to get her 22nd goal of the season and extend her team’s lead to two. Though RFA would try to rally once more, B’ville kept attacking and refused to sit on its lead, forcing penalty corners and keeping the pressure on the Black Knights’ defenders. Even though the shots were off target (and one hit the left post), the Bees would not surrender control the rest of the way, Farrell making a big kick save with 6:50 left to keep the margin intact. B’ville will play Section IV champion Greene Tuesday night at 7 p.m. on Greene’s home turf, with the winner to get the Section II champions next Saturday for a berth in the state final four, to be played Nov. 19-20 right back at the CNS turf where B’ville made its championship breakthrough.