With a 15-0-1 record, a no. 7 state Class AA ranking and the top seed in the Section III Class AA playoffs, the Baldwinsville girls soccer team had plenty of options about how to proceed in the post-season.
Given those choices, the Bees decided to get the early-round work done in a hurry, so it faced no. 8 seed Syracuse United last Tuesday night at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium in its quarterfinal before any of the other quarterfinals took place.
The game didn’t have much suspense as B’ville routed Syracuse 8-1, a result that was not surprising, given that Syracuse had faced Class B teams all season in the Onondaga High School League Liberty division and this a large step up in competition.
Spreading its production out through the course of the entire game, the Bees roared to a 4-0 lead by halftime and just kept going, its only blemish a second-half goal from Syracuse’s Phoebe Faley.
Katie Pascale, with two goals and one assist, led B’ville as fellow freshman Simone Neivel and Carolyn Brussel also scored twice. Single goals went to Ardianna Sposato and Kelsey Delola, with Sposato joining Addison Hornsey, Gabby George, Shannon Lauko and Michelle Eubank in the assist column.
B’ville had to wait two days to find out who it would face in the AA semifinals. On Thursday night, no. 5 seed Fayetteville-Manlius visited no. 4 seed West Genesee and, surviving regulation, two regular overtimes, two golden-goal OT periods and two rounds of penalty kicks, the Hornets edged the Wildcats.
Thus, it was the Bees against F-M in one sectional semifinal, with no. 2 seed Liverpool and no. 3 seed Rome Free Academy squaring off in the other semifinal.