Before it could really take aim at the Class A favorites (Cicero-North Syracuse and West Genesee) that it lost to earlier this season, the Baldwinsville girls lacrosse team first had to make sure it could beat the other main large-school rivals.

And that didn’t prove too easy, especially in last Tuesday’s game against Fayetteville-Manlius, who rallied late in regulation to force overtime, where the combined work of Glory Johnson and Andrea Walker helped save the Bees in a 13-12 victory.

B’ville had to stage its own comeback in the first half. Trailing 4-1, it got five straight goals to gain a 6-4 lead going into the break, and despite a furious exchange throughout the second half, the Bees still were up, 11-9, with less than two minutes to play.

But F-M kept attacking, and after cutting it to 11-10, it notched the tying goal in the last seconds of the second half, and at 11-11 the Hornets and Bees would go to a pair of three-minute overtimes.

Here, Walker really went to the forefront. Trailing 12-11 in the OT, her pass set up Marjorie Dehm’s tying goal. Then, after Glory Johnson won the crucial draw, Walker beat Aubrey Deveau for the go-ahead tally in the final minute of the second OT, and it proved enough.

Johnson finished with four goals and two assists, with Walker piling up five assists to go with her pair of goals. Dehm and Taylor Gebhardt each scored twice as Maria Henwood, Alex Leo and Julia Pelcher had one goal apiece. Anna Mazurkiewicz added an assist.

F-M had Jane Cote, Amanda Cramer and Mary Trop each put up three-goal hat tricks, with Cote contributing a trio of assists, too. Syndey DeGirolamo added two goals and two assists.

Still at home on Saturday afternoon, B’ville took on Penfield (Section V), and had a far less stressful game, pulling away in the second half to beat the Patriots 9-3.

Penfield tried to slow the game down, and did so in a low-scoring first half. Staying patient, the Bees still maintained a 3-1 halftime lead and then got away in the homestretch in large measure due to Gebhardt, who outscored the Patriots by herself by finding the net five times.

Walker, with two goals and one assist, offered some help, while Sara Goodwin had one goal and one assist. Leo earned the other goal and Johnson managed an assist. Julia George made six saves.

At 4-3 on the season, B’ville is finally above the .500 mark, and could build on that in Tuesday’s rematch with F-M (who knocked off Liverpool last Friday) before visiting Cicero-North Syracuse on Thursday night, the Northstars having just rallied to stun West Genesee 12-11 last Tuesday to add a lot more suspense to both the league and Section III Class A races.