What had gone so well for 14 games and had produced a no. 14 state ranking has, for the Baldwinsville boys soccer team, turned into a giant question mark entering the Section III Class AA playoffs.
The Bees have gone from recording 12 victories, each of them shutouts, to giving up nine goals in two games, including last Thursday night’s 4-1 defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse at the Gillette Road complex.
B’ville had shut out C-NS 2-0 back on Sept. 20 at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, the first meeting between the two since last year’s sectional title game.
But the Northstars had learned, from that game, how it could find success against a Bees defense that was formidable at the time, but now was battered in the wake of the 5-0 beating F-M gave them the previous Saturday.
Led by Zach Spenard and Nolan Byrnes, C-NS would negate a Brandon Mimas goal, assisted by Tyler Luciano, and seize a 2-1 halftime lead. And with its defense making sure the Bees didn’t convert again, the attack could stay aggressive, which it did.
Spenard and Byrnes would both score twice, while Brady Engle joined Spenard in the assist column. While that was going on, a fast-improving C-NS defense started to resemble the shutdown unit of 2015, holding the Bees to a handful of chances and protecting goalie Kevin Czuba, who only had to make four saves.
Adding to the intrigue of the sectional tournament was the fact that, 24 hours later, F-M lost, too, falling 1-0 to Liverpool. It only seemed to prove that nothing could get taken for granted once the post-season got underway.
And when it did, B’ville still had the no. 2 seed in the 10-team bracket, with F-M as the top seed, meaning that the Bees would wait until Thursday to play its quarterfinal against the winner of Tuesday’s opening-round game between no. 7 seed Henninger and no. 10 seed Rome Free Academy.
