When they had first met a month earlier, the Baldwinsville boys soccer team was still in its growing phase, and not yet at the level where Fayetteville-Manlius appeared to stand alone, at least in terms of local Section III Class AA sides.
Everything has changed now – including the quality of play from the Bees, who absorbed an early blow in last Tuesday night’s rematch with the Hornets and then shrugged it off, seizing control by halftime and prevailing by a score of 3-1.
That initial meeting, a 2-0 defeat on Sept. 4 at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, was part of a 9-0 start for F-M where it rose all the way to no. 2 in the state Class AA rankings.
But after Liverpool gave the Hornets its first defeat in another 3-1 decision on Sept. 26, it appeared to cause lingering damage to F-M, for defeats to CBA and Cicero-North Syracuse quickly followed.
B’ville took notice of all this as it steadily built a five-game win streak, and by the time it was done at F-M, it would be six in a row, and the Hornets would be in further trouble.
Barely a minute into the game, F-M appeared to offer a signal of renewal as Connor Treglia scored off a feed from Joe Amato. But B’ville just as quickly pulled even, 1-1, and then tacked on two more goals before they reached halftime.
Connor Ross took the most advantage of the Hornets’ defensive breakdowns, twice finding the net, while Connor Lunduski managed a goal and assist and Jeff Mahar also had an assist.
Once it had that lead, B’ville still had to get through the second half – which it did, the defense putting together as superb effort to thwart all of F-M’s chances as Nick Lindovski finished with six saves.
Back home on Thursday night, the Bees did not even get close to suffering a letdown against Oswego, using a big first-half outburst to earn a 6-0 victory over the Buccaneers.
All six of those goals came in the first 40 minutes, three of them from Connor Lunduski, whose hat trick was made possible by the fact that so many others were playing well, too, including Alex Pompo, who notched a pair of goals.
Jerome Goodridge also found the net, with Jason Ekure earning two assists. Nick Gates, Angelo Vecchio and Max Charest picked up one assist apiece.
Following Tuesday’s game against Corcoran, B’ville (11-3) will get a great idea where it stands before the Class AA sectional tournament when it visits Gillette Field next Thursday to face Cicero-North Syracuse in a highly-anticipated regular-season finale. The Bees won the first meeting with the Northstars 1-0 back on Sept. 9.
