A Baldwinsville field hockey season that started so promising, included plenty of bumps in the middle and featured a strong entrance into the Section III Class A playoffs ended a couple of steps short of glory.
Even with Liverpool going into the second half of Sunday’s sectional semifinal against Liverpool at East Syracuse-Minoa’s Spartan Stadium, the no. 2 seed Bees saw its defense overwhelmed in the latter stages of a 3-1 defeat to the no. 3 seed Warriors.
Way back on Sept. 3, B’ville had won on its home grass over Liverpool, 2-1, rallying with a pair of second-half goals, only to drop the return engagement at LHS Stadium by that same margin just 17 days later.
Now, in the third and most important encounter, Liverpool carried with it the major benefit of playing on an artificial surface, just like it’s used to at home. The Bees would have to adjust after closing the regular season with 15 combined goals in wins over Auburn and Oneida.
Neither team had played for more than a week, so a vast majority of the first half was spent on futile runs and warming up amid wind, cold temperatures and rain.
B’ville did find some room to attack, but it quickly closed up in the face of a tough Warriors defense. Just the same, the Bees’ back line, led by Samantha Smith, Erin Miles and Katie Doyle, did a terrific job bottling up Liverpool’s offense, ably protecting goalie Kaitlyn Gee.
The dearth of real opportunities led to a 0-0 deadlock going to the second half, and an increased meaning to whoever could break through and get on the board.
Just 6:36 into the second half, that goal arrived. Liverpool was unable to convert a penalty corner, but seconds later the Bees turned it over, and with another chance to fire away, Meghan Bailey beat Gee to put the Warriors in front.
Even more devastating was that, less than 90 seconds later, the Bees’ deficit doubled when the Warriors, off another penalty corner, saw Lindsay Bergano take a pass from Brianna Socker and rip a hard shot that Gee could not stop.
Midway through the second half, Nikki Wilson added to B’ville’s woes, putting in the Warriors’ third goal. That all but ended the suspense, though B’ville kept working to the finish and Mackenzie Carhart pushed in a goal just before time expired.
So the Bees’ season concluded with a 10-6 mark. Six seniors will depart, including Gee, Carhart, Smith, Serena Capsello, Hannah Wood and Mackenzie Kimball, leaving head coach Tessa Ordway with a lot of key parts to replace.
