Ryan Gebhardt knew that he was the target of the defense, so the task was to time his pass just right, and hope his teammate broke for the open space in front of the net.
Double-teamed, Gebhardt got rid of the ball- and Matt Dickman was there, all alone, in front of Ryan Boshart. After a split-second and a fake, Gebhardt calmly deposited his point-blank shot in the net, and a moment later joined his Baldwinsville boys lacrosse teammates in a wild celebration.
Dickman’s goal, 2:05 into overtime, gave the Bees a satisfying 9-8 victory over Fayetteville-Manlius in Tuesday night’s Section III Class A semifinal at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
This provided all sorts of atonment for B’ville, not just because the Hornets beat them twice during the regular season, but mostly due to the 8-7 defeat F-M handed them a year ago in the Class A title game at the Carrier Dome, denying the Bees its first sectional title since 1992.
In order to turn all of those results around, B’ville unleashed a zone defense on F-M from the opening whistle. Kyle Pelcher, Ben Dwyer, David Steria and the rest of the Bees’ back line would frustrate the Hornets even as it controlled most of the early face-offs.
Gebhardt’s back-to-back goals late in the first quarter put B’ville up 3-1, but that was the only two-goal lead either team would enjoy. With Donovan Welsh gaining a trio of first-half assists and Matt Burnam scoring twice, F-M tied it, 4-4, by halftime.
For the entire second half, B’ville would not hold a lead. But all four times F-M went out in front, B’ville would answer, with Dickman and Austin Bolton netting goals in the third quarter and the defense continually preventing the Hornets from gaining a cushion.
Barely a minute into the fourth quarter, Gebhardt pulled the Bees even again, 7-7, and though Luke Hamel restored F-M’s lead two minutes later, Mike Tangredi’s nifty shot with 6:50 to play created yet another tie.
They stayed 8-8 for the rest of regulation, both sides squandering great chances to win it, including one that will long remain in dispute, especially among F-M partisans.
Having seen Boshart make a big save to set up a last possession in regulation, the Hornets called time-out with 12 seconds left. The ball went around to Nick Papa, whose shot beat Frank Delia – but hit the left post, and went out of bounds with two seconds left.
In those two seconds, Donovan Welsh charged to the front, shot and put the ball in the net, only to have officials disallow the possible winning goal for having come after the clock hit zero.
B’ville had a reprieve, but like he had done so many times during the game, F-M’s Zak VanValkenburgh claimed the OT face-off, and the Hornets worked the ball around, only to have Delia make his biggest stop of the game on Luke Hamel’s close-up shot.
Seconds later, Dickman had a much better look at the net, and he did not miss.
And this gives B’ville another chance to break its 23-year sectional title drought against the team that’s won most of them in that long period, West Genesee, in Thursday night’s final at C-NS at 7 p.m.
The top-seeded Wildcats routed Liverpool 16-2 in the other semifinal and, like F-M, beat the Bees twice in the regular season. B’ville will hope the third meeting with WG turns out just like the third meeting with the Hornets did.
