Nothing that the Baldwinsville boys lacrosse team did leading up to last Tuesday’s game at Fayetteville-Manlius hinted at what was to follow.
The Bees, after all, were 5-0, locked into the no. 13 spot in the state Class A rankings, and it was burning for payback since the Hornets had beaten B’ville in last May’s Section III Class A final, a painful loss that motivated the Bees to go all the way this time.
Instead of getting even, though, B’ville got run over, victimized by its own struggles on both sides of the ball as it lost, 17-5, to the Hornets
They traded goals in the first three minutes – Luke Burnam for F-M, Brandon Mimas for B’ville – and did so again in the final seconds of the opening period as Ryan Gebhardt briefly put the Bees in front, but Tommy Ryu won the ensuing face-off and answered 11 seconds later.
As this was going on, though, F-M was winning the battles for both ground balls and face-offs, forcing B’ville to lean on its defense. Then the Hornets sent its best forwards one-on-one against the Bees’ back line, and began to take over.
Burnam’s goal 3:20 into the second quarter was the first of three in 70 seconds, with Donovan Welsh and Mac Fish converting, too. Then Welsh found the net again at the 5:16 mark to make it 6-2.
Far from done, the Hornets kept gaining face-offs and kept burning B’ville. James Rettinger scored twice late in the period, with goals in between by Welsh and Burnam, giving F-M a 10-2 edge by halftime.
Instead of turning it around in the third quarter, the Bees were shut out again, Welsh doing most of the damage as he ran his total to six goals and four assists. Burnam and Fish finished with three goals apiece.
Whenever it needed to play defense, F-M leaned on Brett Barlow, Tom Angelicola, Ben Welling and Sam Stratton to frustrate B’ville, who went without a goal for more than 27 minutes until Gebhardt, Matt Dickman and Justin Hunter got some late goals. Ryan Boshart was sharp between the pipes for the Hornets, recording 11 saves.
All of this proved such a sharp contrast to the Bees’ effort against Irondequoit (Section V) on April 15, which was won by that exact same 17-5 margin, only here the margin gradually built up, rather than in one long spurt.
Gebhardt, in particular, had burned Irondequoit with a season-best eight goals, adding an assist. Dickman scored twice, while Pete Fiorini had a goal and two assists. Hunter also had two assists as Mimas, Cole Peters, Spencer Wirtheim, Noah Ravas, Jason Dobek and Brendan Wilcox gained single goals. Assists went to Mike Trangredi, Cameron Slink and Dan Fuller.
Angered by its poor effort against F-M, B’ville returned home Thursday and took it out on Syracuse in a 14-4 romp, steadily working its way to a 6-2 advantage by halftime before blanking the Warriors during a decisive 4-0 third-quarter push.
Fiorini was quite generous, piling up seven assists and feeding it to, among others, Gebhardt, who scored three times. Peters, Tangredi and Austin Bolton earned two goals apiece, while Wirtheim had one goal and one assist. Dickman, Wilcox and Nate Redmond scored, too, with Hunter and Tanner McCaffrey earning assists.
B’ville was looking to salvage a winning week in Saturday’s non-league game at Webster Thomas (Section V), but instead fell 9-8 in a game where the Titans dominated the first three quarter, building a 9-3 edge as its defense stifled whatever the Bees tried to establish.
Somehow, B’ville almost rallied to forced overtime, going on a late 5-0 surge in the final period. Gebhardt would net three goals, with Peters scoring twice. Fiorini, Wirtheim and Cameron Slink had one goal apiece. Delia had a strong game in the net, earning 13 saves.
This leads to another big game on Tuesday night, where B’ville would take on West Genesee two days before hosting Cicero-North Syracuse and before Saturday’s visit from Auburn.
