Despair had turned into hope, depression into aggression, and the Syracuse ice hockey team was about to catch Baldwinsville. Late in the third period of Saturday’s Section III Division I final at Utica Memorial Auditorium, the Cougars, who once trailed by four goals, had pulled within one of the Bees and were going all-out to tie the game and attempt to keep its championship dreams alive. But that comeback would fall just short, B’ville recovering long enough to get two goals in final 90 seconds to pull away for a 7-4 victory and its first-ever sectional title. Since Corcoran and Solvay had combined forces in the Syracuse Cougars program, it had not reached a sectional title game until this season, but B’ville’s frustrations dated back a long way. Seven times in the last quarter-century, B’ville made it to the sectional final, only to get turned back. But the Bees had put an end to WG’s seven-year reign on top last Tuesday when it blanked the Wildcats 5-0 in last Tuesday’s sectional semifinal a day before Syracuse’s 2-0 shutout over Rome Free Academy in the other semifinal. Syracuse and B’ville had split a pair of regular-season games, the Bees winning 4-2 on Dec. 6 at Lysander, but the Cougars prevailing 3-1 at Meachem Rink a month later. When the game faced off, B’ville patiently looked for an opening – and then jumped through it 3:11 into the first period when Adam Tretowicz made a tremendous move streaking down the left side past a Syracuse defender and then ripped a wrist shot past Cougars goalie Sam Walsh. Three minutes later, it was 2-0, again through a breakaway, only this time it was Glamos finding open ice after passes from Isaiah Pompo and Charlie Bertrand and then converting it into a goal. Matt Frye briefly gave Syracuse a respite, scoring at the 9:56 mark, but with 46.8 seconds left in the period Glamos, who had scored twice against West Genesee in the semifinals, again streaked into the Cougars’ end and again beat Walsh. Not content with a 3-1 lead, Pompo streaked to the net 5:52 into the second period off a perfect feed from Glamos and beat Walsh to make it 4-1. Just 53 seconds later, passes from Tretowicz and Lindsay set up Matt Abbott for a power-play goal. By that point, B’ville had taken 11 shots and converted on five of them, so Syracuse replaced Walsh with Jake Polacek, who blanked the Bees the rest of the period and gave the Cougars hope if it could get its offense going – which it did. Collin Thompson scored 1:12 into the third period, cutting B’ville’s margin to 5-2. It maintained that pressure and, despite a Bees power play, converted on a short-handed chance when Nick Matro, fed by Matt Eccles, found the net with 8:30 to play. It got even more nervous for the Bees when the Cougars got a five-on-three chance midway through the period, and though B’ville killed it off, Syracuse kept coming in waves until Matro, with 3:56 left, put in the rebound of Colby Skrupa’s shot and reduced B’ville’s margin to one. Now in its own desperate mode, the Bees killed off another power play, by which point Walsh had returned to the net. Then, with 1:26 left, Glamos, fed by Tretowicz, broke free again and, from the left point, fired it past Walsh to complete the hat trick. Abbott added an empty-net tally in the final minute, and the Bees finally had a sectional championship to celebrate, while Syracuse could still celebrate a season that included an American Conference regular-season title and two thrilling victories over West Genesee.