When the first state boys soccer rankings came out early last week, just one Section III was listed in any of the five classes – Baldwinsville, who slid into the no. 9 position in Class AA.
All rankings early in the season are a combination of speculation and reward for past performances, but the Bees had shown, during its 4-0-1 start, an ability to shut down opponents, leading to shutouts in all four of those victories.
Two more shutouts would follow last week, setting up Saturday night’s big showdown with Fayetteville-Manlius at Swan Pond. Here, the Bees took the lead, then fell behind, only to fight back and force overtime before taking a 3-2 defeat to the Hornets in the second extra period.
F-M arrived with a 5-1 record, the last four of those wins shutouts. Yet even with a large home crowd on hand to spur them on, the Hornets couldn’t keep B’ville from netting the first goal of the evening in the 11th minute.
It stayed that way until Joe Falcone tied it in the 34th minute and, with less than two minutes left in the half, Seth Eppling converted, putting F-M in front, 2-1. Were it not for 10 combined saves from Bees goalies Lucas Moore and Scott Ferrari, it may have turned more lopsided.
Still, for the first time all season, B’ville stared at a deficit, but it fought back to get even, 2-2, with less than 14 minutes left in regulation. The goals by Brandon Mimas and Steve Jensen broke F-M’s shutout streak and set up overtime as Mike Brussel got credit for an assist.
Through one 10-minute OT period, it remained unresolved. But with 6:26 left in the second OT, another Hornets attack proved successful, Ryan Varley passing it to Hunter Knutsen, who put home the game-winner and handed the Bees its first defeat of the season. The two sides meet again Oct. 8 at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
Before all this, the Bees got a fifth shutout in last Monday’s game against visiting West Genesee, who could not generate much of an attack against B’ville as the hosts’ unbeaten streak reached six with a 2-0 victory.
Despite constant B’ville pressure, it only led 1-0 at halftime, seeing Wildcats goalie David Wenner work his way to 10 saves. But the Bees converted again after the break and saw defensive stalwart Ben Kinslow earn an assist, alongside Connor Carhart, on goals by Brandon Mimas and Jason Hahn.
B’ville would go to Nottingham two nights later, and the game followed a familiar narrative as the Bees had to scrape past the Bulldogs 1-0.
Just as in the Aug. 31 season opener at Nottingham, B’ville got an early goal from Brandon Mimas, this time with Zach Bush getting the assist, and would not find the net again, thwarted by Nottingham goalie Megeno Abdi and his 12 saves.
This wasn’t a one-sided affair, either. The Bulldogs constantly applied pressure, and despite the work of Kinslow and his fellow defenders, Nottingham took 10 shots – but D.J. Moore stopped all of them, gaining yet another shutout.
Once done at F-M, the Bees could look ahead to back-to-back marquee games for B’ville on the new Pelcher-Arcaro turf, first against Cicero-North Syracuse in the first encounter between the two since last fall’s Section III Class AA final, and a rematch Friday night with Liverpool, the same team it beat 1-0 in the Aug. 31 opener.
