Having made some history with its first Section III Class A championship in 25 years, the Baldwinsville boys lacrosse team now went after more history in the form of the program’s first-ever state championship.
And that quest remains alive – but only after a state playoff opener that nearly produced the wrong kind of history.
Having dominated Ithaca in the first half of Wednesday’s Class A regional final at Corning Memorial Stadium, the Bees nearly gave all of its nine-goal lead away, but did just enough at the end to hold off the Little Red 10-9.
It marked B’ville’s third consecutive one-goal win in the playoffs after consecutive 9-8 decisions over Fayetteville-Manlius (in overtime) and West Genesee in the last two sectional rounds, but those games were tight from start to finish. This one, against Ithaca, was far more extreme.
The Bees were sharp from the outset, especially on the defensive side, where it made up for struggles in the face-off circle with plenty of stops by goalie Frank Delia (he had most of his 10 saves in the first half) that set up chances on the other end, which B’ville cashed in on a consistent basis.
Ryan Gebhardt got the first goal 2:13 into the game. Cole Peters made it 2-0 midway through the first quarter and Austin Bolton converted on a rebound two minutes later. Two more goals followed in the last minute of the period by Pete Fiorini and Mike Tangredi.
So it was 5-0, and those five goals came from five different players. This well-balanced attack continued to strike, with Tangredi’s second goal 42 seconds into the second period and Bolton tacking on a second goal less than two minutes later.
Fiorini returned for a second goal and Matt Dickman joined in to make it 9-0, where it stood at halftime as nearly everyone assumed that B’ville was well on its way to the state semifinals.
Normally, halftime runs for 10 minutes. But lightning in the area caused a 30-minute delay to the start of the second half, robbing the Bees of all the momentum it had built in the first two quarters and giving Ithaca ample time to figure out how to get back in it.
Once things resumed, it took less than two minutes of the third quarter for Nick Miller to put the Little Red on the board. Gebhardt answered to make it 10-1, and no one on B’ville’s side was too worried, even as Ithaca did convert twice to cut the margin to 10-3 as the fourth quarter got underway.
A man-up goal just 15 seconds into the final period pushed the Little Red closer, and now Ithaca’s big advantage in the face-off circle due to the work of Matt Pagliano began to pay off in extra possessions for the Section IV champions and extra work for the Bees’ defense to do.
Three more Ithaca goals cut the margin to 10-7. Then it scored twice in a 10-second span to move within one with 1:48 to play. By now, Miller and Ryan Sposito both had hat tricks for the Little Red and, again, Pagliano claimed the face-off, giving his side a chance to tie.
Tired, but determined, Bees defenders Kyle Pelcher, Ben Dwyer and David Steria clamped down and forced a turnover in front of Delia in the waning seconds, and B’ville held on to move within two wins of a state title.
Not until Saturday did B’ville find out that it would take on Pittsford (Section V) in that state semifinal next Wednesday at 4 p.m. at St. John Fisher College, right in the Panthers’ back yard.
Pittsford easily beat Orchard Park 20-6 in the West Regional final, and now the Panthers and Bees will battle to see who comes back to St. John Fisher next Saturday for the state title game against Lakeland-Panas or Ward Melville.
