From doubts and uncertainty, the Baldwinsville football team has evolved into an unstoppable force – at least on one side of the ball.
The Bees’ point-scoring barrage, which began Sept. 17 with its second-half comeback to stun Auburn, continued Friday night at Fayetteville-Manlius with a career-best rushing performance from Evan Ingerson as B’ville held off the Hornets 45-42.
Putting up numbers that reminded Bees fans of the likes of Tyler Rouse (now at Boston College), Ingerson ran for 318 yards and three touchdowns, helping his side build a 45-28 fourth-quarter lead that proved large enough, despite a furious late F-M comeback.
“Ryan is a tough kid that works hard and runs hard,” said head coach Carl Sanfilippo.
Right from the outset, it was clear that the momentum the Bees gained eight days earlier at Auburn’s Holland Stadium rallying from a 26-point deficit against the Maroons to claim a 50-45 classic had not dissipated.
Without Sam Mahar (injured leg) to run the ball, more was put on Ingerson and fellow tailback Jack Buis, and it was Buis striking first, going 47 yards for a TD on the Bees’ first possession.
Ingerson’s first big play came a few minutes later, a 71-yard dash deep into F-M territory that set up Buis for a one-yard scoring run that gave B’ville a quick 14-0 edge.
But while the Bees were moving the ball at will, so were the Hornets, who struck for a pair of TD passes by both of its quarterbacks to Fernando Johnson – Henry Josephson for 69 yards, Jared Shaw for 29 yards – that bridged Ingerson’s 12-yard scoring run early in the second quarter.
A Hornets fumble set up Ingerson’s third TD, a seven-yard run, before the Hornets pulled within 27-21 on Shaw’s five-yard scoring pass to David Stegemann with 1:02 left in the half.
But that was enough time for the Bees to answer in two plays – both runs by Ingerson. One covered 20 yards, and the other went 40 yards to the end zone. Combined with a two-point pass to Dwyer, it restored B’ville’s margin to 35-21 as they went to halftime.
Time and again, the Bees’ line, consisting of Dan Bridge, Anthony Emmi, Mike Spicer, Josh Greer and Noah Ricks, along with tight end Gabe Horan, pushed the Hornets’ front line back, especially on toss sweeps that allowed Ingerson to gain large chunks of yards.
Having scored a combined 78 points in its last four quarters, the Bees struck again early in the third period, Ingerson going over the 200-yard mark with a 28-yard run that set up Dwyer to score from two yards out.
Now B’ville led 42-21, finding itself in the same situation as the week before, only now it was the Bees trying to keep the other side from rallying.
F-M did cut the margin to 42-28, but hurt itself again with a pair of turnovers as Madison Wolfanger intercepted a Shaw pass deep in Bees territory and recovered a fumble early in the fourth quarter.
From there, B’ville used up nearly five minutes of clock driving inside F-M’s 10 before Dwyer converted on a 25-yard field goal with 6:30 left, little imagining that those would be the winning points.
Even short of time-outs, F-M kept exploiting a Bees defense without Mahar and Ingerson manning the cornerback slots. Kyle McGee hit on a four-yard TD run with 3:56 left, and after forcing a three—and-out, the Hornets marched again to Shaw’s 14-yard scoring run with 57 seconds left.
Dwyer recovered the ensuing onside kick, though, to lock things up. With the win, the Bees improved to 2-0 in the Class AA-2 division and 3-1 overall, setting up a first-place league showdown with Utica Proctor this Friday at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
The Raiders are 4-0, but coming off a wild win of its own, 52-49 over Henninger, so that hints at a contest between Proctor and B’ville that, again, could light up the scoreboard often.