In an emphatic way, the Baldwinsville girls soccer team found out that the road back to the Section III Class AA title still winds through the side that won it one year ago.
Liverpool, gaining payback for a loss to the Bees nearly a month ago, used Ore Akinpelu’s pair of breakaway goals, combined with a superb defense, to beat the Bees 2-0 last Thursday night at LHS Stadium.
This was the very same B’ville team that, on Sept. 18, lit up Liverpool as the Bees prevailed 5-3 at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium. In fact, prior to this night, no one had shut out B’ville all season.
Doing so required an all-out effort to track the Bees’ star senior forward, Emma Firenze, who is headed to Syracuse University next fall to join her older sister, Jackie.
From the start, Liverpool midfielder Morgan Wright stayed right with Firenze, following her all over the field and rarely giving her any room to maneuver once she had the ball.
Of course, Wright didn’t operate alone on the back line. Senior co-captains Chelsea Bowers and Jennifer Higgins provided double teams on Firenze, and along with Alyssa Bittel and Leigha Allen, they clamped down on the entire B’ville front line.
By the late portion of the first half, the Warriors were attacking more, which meant seeing the quick, skillful Akinpelu and her front-line mate, Breanna Sharpe, zip past B’ville defenders and make serious runs. In the 35th minute, Akinpelu appeared to beat Bees goalie Jaclyn Hingre, but the Bees’ Jade Sergeant kicked it out before it crossed the goal line.
Then, 3:40 into the second half, Akinpelu picked up the ball near midfield and again found her way toward the net. This time, no one stopped her as Akinpelu deposited a low shot past Hingre and into the net.
That strong Liverpool defense protected the 1-0 lead, easily turning back B’ville’s rare chances, including a pair of corner kicks. Maintaining the pressure, Akinpelu forced a turnover and made another solo run, easily beating Hingre for the insurance goal with 8:51 left.
To its credit, B’ville did not look ahead to the Liverpool showdown. The Bees defeated West Genesee 3-1 last Tuesday night at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, exactly four weeks after it had beaten the Wildcats 2-0 in Camillus.
Now, as then, Firenze tortured WG’s defense. Having scored both goals in the Sept. 11 meeting, Firenze continued to produce, again getting two goals as B’ville pulled away from a modest 1-0 halftime margin.
Jade Gentile earned the other goal, while Cassidy Bruen picked up a pair of assists. Becky Brien earned the Wildcats’ lone goal in the second half.
Another big game looms Tuesday, at Cicero-North Syracuse, before Thursday’s regular-season finale against Central Square and Sunday’s announcement of the Class AA playoff bracket.
