While all of the ceremonies surrounding the new Field Turf at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium will take place Friday night prior to the football team’s home opener, it was another successful athletic program that would have the high honor of playing the first varsity game on this surface.
That would be the boys soccer Bees, who on a warm Tuesday evening welcomed Henninger and proceeded to play a strong all-around game that resulted in a 2-0 victory over the Black Knights.
Henninger arrived at this game having won its season opener 2-1 over defending Section III Class AA champion Cicero-North Syracuse. Though the Black Knights didn’t have B’ville’s depth, it did possess a sound defense and an ability to counter-attack whenever the opportunity presented itself.
For the most part, the Bees shut down those options throughout the night and stayed patient for scoring chances. After some near-misses, the breakthrough came in the 30th minute when Brandon Mimas, from the right corner, fed a low pass to Jacob Guidone, who slid it past Henninger goalie Moo Kpo Lo inside the left post.
Given the way Ben Kinslow, D.J. Taylor and the rest of the Bees’ back line protected that 1-0 lead, it looked safe enough. Still, a one-goal margin is always precarious, and B’ville didn’t let up on its attack, even after a brief delay with 7:02 to play when the lights went out – but were restored seconds later.
As the clock ticked under the three-minute mark, B’ville attacked again, and the ball drifted out to the point, where Zach Bush, from 25 yards out, took a pass from Guidone floated a shot into the top left corner of the net for the clinching goal.
Before all this, B’ville played three games at Liverpool, winning two of them. It’s rare that any team plays three games on the same visitor’s field within the same season, much less a 72-hour span.
Yet that’s how the season started for the Bees, who went to Liverpool on Aug. 31 and rode a Mimas goal in the first two minutes to a 1-0 victory – only to return to LHS Stadium on Labor Day weekend for a tournament showcase against two long-time powers, Jamesville-DeWitt and Christian Brothers Academy.
In the first of those games on Sept. 2, B’ville got another shutout, topping J-D 2-0. For a half, neither side would budge, but the Bees were getting more opportunities to put it past Red Rams goalie Tom Bonaccio, who finished with nine saves.
Then the breakthrough happened as Mimas converted his second goal in as many games, but this time got support from Jason Hahn, who also found the net. Stan Jensen added an assist as the Bees’ stifling defense held the Rams to two shots all game.
A day later, B’ville would get a CBA side that had lost 2-1 in overtime to Liverpool the previous afternoon. This game would also head for overtime, but despite having an advantage in terms of rest, the Bees could only earn a 1-1 draw with the Brothers.
Connor Carhart’s first-half goal pushed B’ville in front. That 1-0 lead didn’t hold, though, as Alex Calkins, off a feed from Dan Melvin, beat Lucas Vecchio for the tying goal in the second half. 20 minutes of overtime followed, but neither team could win it as Vecchio had five saves and CBA counterpart Matt Buck had seven saves.
And this led to Tuesday win over Henninger – followed, two nights later, by a visit from Corcoran that netted the same winning result for the Bees as it got a chance to showcase its attack and reached double digits in a 10-0 shutout of the Cougars.
Not only did B’ville find the net five times in each half, it did so with all sorts of different players contributing to the cause – in all, 14 of them were credited with a goal or assist.
Only Mimas and Jensen scored twice, with single goals going to Hahn, Cole Peters, Jack Todora, Ian Goodale, Jack Timmons and Ryan Downes. Bush joined Carhart, Mike Brussel, Kevin Schrank, Spencer Cavallaro and Andrew Bowman in the assist column, while Vecchio, Scott Ferrari and Nolan Murphy took turns in goal.
At 3-0-1, the Bees host West Genesee Monday night and visit Nottingham on Wednesday during next week’s action.
