Halftime arrived in Tuesday night’s Section III Class AA semifinal, and the Baldwinsville boys soccer team was struggling again.
Having required overtime to get past Rome Free Academy in last Friday’s quarterfinal round, the top-seeded Bees now found itself scoreless against no. 4 seed Fayetteville-Manlius on the same Jamesville-DeWitt turf where the Hornets beat B’ville in the 2017 sectional final.
Instead of panic, though, the Bees went back to what it practice – and the result was a second-half barrage that put away F-M and produced a 3-0 victory.
And it sends B’ville back to J-D for next Monday’s sectional final against no. 3 seed Cicero-North Syracuse, who knocked off no. 2 seed Liverpool 1-0 on Joe Barraco’s overtime goal.
During those first 45 minutes against an F-M side it shut out twice in the regular season, “we didn’t play the way we train,’ said Bees head coach Tim Scheemaker.
According to Scheemaker, the Bees’ early difficulty stemmed from trying to make difficult passes in the face of a Hornets defense designed to deny those opportunities.
As a result, forwards such as Josh Price, who entered the game with a team-high 14 goals, rarely touched the ball, and didn’t offer any serious threats during the first 40 minutes.
Everything changed after intermission, though. The passes were simpler and started to connect, and for the first time in the post-season the Bees’ offense matched the quality of a defense that has recorded 16 shutouts this fall.
Just 2:31 into the second half, a series of those passes led to Brennan Walsh, from the left corner, passing to the middle, where Price one-timed it past F-M goalie Chris Szidat inside the right post.
Much more damage was done in the 52nd minute. Here, Price again was stationed at the point, this time left wide open by a gap in F-M’s defense as Jason Hahn crossed from the left. Price powered home his second goal.
Though B’ville already had enough, it tacked on a third goal with 14:35 left as Walsh lofted a beautiful 30-yard free kick from the far left side that Tyler Johnson converted.
And now it’s the Bees against C-NS in the sectional final. As with F-M, B’ville is trying to beat the Northstars for the third time this season, having prevailed 2-1 Sept. 18 at the Gillette Road complex and 2-0 at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium earlier this month.
