What a difference a week, a change of venue, a few face-offs and a hot goalie playing at a high level can make.
Combine all of those factors, and it amounted to the Baldwinsville boys lacrosse team earning a most satisfying 16-9 victory over defending Section III Class A champion West Genesee last Monday afternoon.
These same two teams had met one week earlier, at Mike Messere Field, and WG had won it, 11-8. Since that point, both the Bees and Wildcats had lost to Fayetteville-Manlius, adding to the urgency of the rematch.
Now they were on the Bees’ home grass, a far different field than the clean turf in Camillus. What was more, B’ville had worked hard on face-offs, something that had bothered them during its two-game skid, especially the F-M game.
B’ville played with urgency throughout the first half, racing out to a 3-1 lead by the end of the opening period and keeping up the intensity during the second quarter, where Charlie Bertrand notched a natural hat trick and the margin doubled, to 9-3.
All through that half, Ryan Ingerson and his fellow Bees handled matters at the center X, gaining most of the face-offs and earning extra possession time. It translated into a sharp, focused attack that solved the riddle of WG’s normally potent man-to-man defense.
Deep into the third quarter, B’ville still led by a six-goal margin, 11-5, but WG started to climb back thanks to, among other things, a turnover by Riley Smith far out of his net that Liam St. Croix converted into a goal, plus a penalty that led to Jack Howes’ man-up goal.
All of that made it 11-8 going into the fourth quarter. Throughout the first four minutes, WG held the ball, but the Bees’ tough defense forced several stops and wore WG out and Riley Smith, atoning for some earlier mistakes, kept making big stops on his way to 19 saves.
Kevin Sheehan did cut the margin to two with 8:03 left, but again the Bees won a crucial faceoff and, a minute later, Ryan Gebhardt made the best offensive play of the day, running around the net and ripping a one-handed shot past WG goalie Ryan Mavretish.
B’ville refused to sit on that lead, adding four late goals from Matt Dickman, Connor Smith, Dillon Darcangelo and Cole Peters to close it out. Gebhardt and Smith joined Bertrand in scoring three times, with Peters, Darcangelo and Peter Fiorini each adding two goals. Peters had three assists and Fiorini two assists as Ingerson and Mark McCabe contributed assists of their own.
In another big test on Wednesday afternoon, B’ville would go to Holland Stadium to face Auburn, the only unbeaten team in the CNY Counties League – even though the Maroons will move down to Class B once the sectional playoffs roll around. ‘
None of this lessened the game’s importance – or its excitement level as the Bees nearly squandered a big second-half advantage, but recovered just in time to edge the Maroons 12-11.
B’ville’s defense had plenty of issues in the first half adjusting to Auburn’s attack, and the result was a 7-5 deficit at the break. All of that turned, though, in the third quarter, when Ingerson gained face-offs and the Bees sliced up the Maroons for six unanswered goals.
Yet this 11-7 lead nearly vanished Auburn clawing its way back as Jake Morin (three goals, one assist) and Kaiden Tubbert (two goals, three assists) led the push. With the margin down to one, 11-10, Bertrand, off a feed from Fiorini, hit on a goal with 31 seconds left, which ultimately made the difference since Alex Burgmaster converted with 10 seconds left for the Maroons, whose rally fell just short.
Gebhardt and Connor Smith both finished with three goals, while Fiorni scored twice and added three assists. Bertrand got two goals and one assist as Darcangelo had one goal and one assist and Patrick Delpha also found the net. Again, Riley Smith made his mark, recording 15 saves, four more than Auburn counterpart Nikoli Biljanoski.
Here, too, B’ville would have an immediate rematch since Auburn would pay a visit Monday – but only after the Bees met Liverpool Friday, a mere 17 days following their first-head-to-head clash on April 12.
While some Bees fans hope their side would match that earlier 14-10 victory at LHS Stadium, the players had no intention of stopping there, choosing this occasion to unload on the Warriors and roll to a 22-8 victory.
Perhaps Liverpool expected some fatigue from B’ville, but if so, the Bees didn’t oblige, steadily picking apart the zone defense put up by Warriors head coach (and former B’ville star) Mike Felice and building an 11-5 halftime lead before inflicting even more damage in the second half.
Gebhardt, in particular, flourished, his career-high eight goals matching Liverpool all by himself. Bertrand netted three goals and Fiorini got four assists, with Connor Smith and Jarrett Winders each scoring twice.
Even defender John Petrelli and long-stick midfielder Patrick Delpha chimed in with goals, joining Dickman, Mike Bourdon, Brandon Kohutanich, Kyle Pelcher and Mitch Warren netting single goals. Ingerson had two assists as Darcangelo and Tanner McCaffery also earned assists.
Without any rest, B’ville (8-2) would get a rematch against Auburn at home on Monday, and then on Wednesday host Cicero-North Syracuse in the first of two meetings with the Northstars in a nine-day span.
