Maybe the mud was not there, but the style of football that the Baldwinsville football team has honed for decades certainly was present in Friday night’s Section III class AA playoff opener against Fayetteville-Manlius at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
Facing wind and rain, the Bees stuck with its trusted ground game and pounded Fayetteville-Manlius 42-6, setting up yet another trip to the sectional semifinals next Friday at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, this time to face undefeated Christian Brothers Academy.
It was true that every factor, from personnel to weather, favored B’ville going into the game. While the Bees were at relative strength, F-M was without its top player, Eric Coley, still out with a broken finger.
Then the elements arrived. While the new Field Turf at Pelcher-Arcaro prevented a quagmire that three-plus inches of rain in the previous 24 hours could have created, the precipitation and wind remained, forcing both teams to mostly depend on their runs games – just what the Bees wanted.
And it took just two possessions for B’ville to break in front for good. Midway through the first quarter, a series of short runs set up Jack Buis to break through the line and go 31 yards to the end zone.
F-M, utilizing sophomores Zack Paige and Mitch Seabury in the backfield with Coley on the sidelines, drove inside B’ville’s 20-yard line, but the Bees’ defense made a crucial stop with a fourth-down fumble that Walsh recovered.
A 74-yard, five-plus minute scoring drive followed, Nate Jaquint capping it off by going nine yards for his second TD early in the second period. A short F-M punt led to more points from the Bees when E.J. Edmonds scored from two yards out with 1:08 left in the half.
Down 21-0, F-M briefly revived when Henry Josephson, scrambling out of the pocket, threw a 56-yard scoring pass to Ryan Cicci 33 seconds before intermission, but it only proved a temporary blip.
Buis, who finished with 209 yards on 29 carries, began the getaway less than two minutes into the third quarter by breaking loose for a 64-yard scoring run. Then Aquari Warner took his turn with TD runs of 14 yards late in the period and nine yards with 7:31 to play. B’ville threw only two passes all night.
While this was going on, CBA, contrasting the one-sided wins it had enjoyed all season, survived a 7-6 battle with Nottingham in its opening-round game at Alibrandi Stadium, not sealing it until Paul Aversa’s interception in the final seconds.
So it’s B’ville against the Brothers in the sectional semifinals, a rematch of the Sept. 2 season opener where CBA used big plays to subdue the Bees 37-6. The winner of the rematch goes to the Carrier Dome Nov. 5 to face Cicero-North Syracuse or Corcoran for the sectional championship.
