The last time the Fayetteville-Manlius and Baldwinsville field hockey teams got together on F-M’s home turf, the Hornets, in penalty strokes, lay claim to the 2015 Section III Class A championship.
Nearly a full year later, these two sides were on this same turf again, only now a different sort of history was at stake, with F-M the only side left having a chance to deny the Bees a perfect 16-0 season.
Given that their first regular-season meeting was lopsided in B’ville’s favor, those odds seemed long – but gathering up all of its grit and determination, F-M reversed that result and, by a 1-0 margin, denied the Bees its chance at perfection.
While B’ville carried the older memory of that 2015 sectional final, F-M’s pain was fresher – namely, a 7-0 drubbing at the hands and sticks of B’ville on Sept. 26. Less than three weeks later, it all turned around.
Largely this was due to a sensational F-M defense, who never let attackers like Shylea Dukat, Amanda Strenk and Chloe Lynch get too many free looks. In fact, Hornets goalie Catherine Barr, so riddled in the first meeting, only had to make six saves in the rematch.
On its side, B’ville’s defense did well, too, anchored by Abbey Timmins’ seven-save effort. Yet the first-half goal she allowed to Sophie Craig, unassisted, stood up the rest of the afternoon, and F-M had a wave of momentum going into the post-season.
Earlier in the week, F-M had visited Weedsport, who showed that it was ready for its sectional Class D title defense by defeating the Hornets 2-1.
Campbell Kennedy’s unassisted first-half goal had put F-M on the board, but the Warriors’ Ashley Wightman matched it. Not done yet, Wightman returned in the second half and slipped the tie-breaking goal past Hornets goalie Catherine Barr, who still had eight saves, three more than Weedsport counterpart Ashley Soutar.
This loss made the upset of B’ville that much more improbable – and it could lead to another sectional final between the Hornets and Bees, since F-M drew the no. 2 seed for the sectional playoffs and will need to beat no. 3 seed Rome Free Academy or no. 6 seed Auburn in next Tuesday’s semifinal at RFA Stadium. B’ville, as the top seed, will face Cicero-North Syracuse or Liverpool in the other semifinal.
East Syracuse Minoa had already seen Baldwinsville during the last week of the regular season, with far different results than F-M got.
The Spartans had gone to Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium last Wednesday night, where it could not contain the Bees in an 8-0 defeat. These same teams had met exactly one week earlier, and B’ville had prevailed 5-3. The difference in the second encounter was that B’ville was back at home and would not let the Spartans get many opportunities to attack.
In all, the Bees took 36 shots, and while Cory Palmer did make 28 saves, both Strenk and Dukat earned three-goal hat tricks, Strenk adding two assists as Mackenzie Wodka and McKenzie Carroll got single goals.
A night later, ESM’s regular season concluded against Moravia, and on Senior Night the Spartans delivered a 4-2 victory over the Blue Devils.
Lindsey Russell put ESM on the board early in the first half. Moravia tied it, 1-1, only to have Samantha Wysocki answer seconds later, so the Spartans were up 2-1 going into halftime.
A cushion came in the second half thanks to Gillianne McCarthy’s goal, assisted by Cara Miller. McCarthy wasn’t done, earning the assist when Emma Schafer became the fourth different ESM player to find the net in the game’s latter stages. Palmer and Lucy Hager combined for eight saves.
So with a 7-9 overall record, ESM would go into the sectional Class B playoffs. As the no. 5 seed, it faces another group of Spartans in Wednesday’s opening-round game at no. 4 seed New Hartford, with the reward a semifinal next Monday at Camden against top seed Whitesboro.
