For more than 68 minutes of last Tuesday night’s boys soccer showdown at Swan Pond, undefeated Baldwinsville kept undefeated Fayetteville-Manlius off the board, displaying a resilience that it rarely needed while winning each of its first six games this fall.
It was the first 12 minutes that proved the problem, as the Bees twice surrendered goals in those early stages, and spent the rest of the night attempting to catch up, B’ville’s quest falling just short in a 2-1 defeat to the Hornets.
As the Bees started 6-0 and rose to the no. 5 state ranking and F-M started 7-0, reaching no. 12 in those same state rankings, the anticipation for their first head-to-head encounter grew, and that nervous energy translated into a frantic start.
Twice, B’ville’s top forward, Brandon Mimas (who entered the game with 12 goals), made long solo runs to the net, forcing F-M’s defense to scramble. Yet those chances did not lead to conversions, and that soon proved costly.
Just 3:35 into the game, the Hornets took a 1-0 lead when Hunter Knutsen’s corner kick was deflected in by Riley Burke. F-M kept pushing and, in the 12th minute, doubled its advantage, again with Knutsen as the catalyst as his curving pass from the left side was pushed by Noah Craig past Bees goalie Donovan Moore.
B’ville would settle down and, by the portion of the first half, was putting heavy pressure on the Hornets’ net. But the Hornets defense remained toug, and even when there were set pieces such as corner kicks or free kicks, B’ville could do little with them as F-M’s sophomore goalie Chris Szidat, made 10 saves.
Yet the the Hornets couldn’t add to its 2-0 lead, either, with Moore making 12 saves, including a diving stop on a hard Alex Bychkov shot midway through the second half.
With 2:39 left, a handball inside the 18-yard box gave B’ville a penalty kick that D.J. Taylor converted. That ended the shutout, but the Hornets held on for its eighth straight win, B’ville knowing that a rematch at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium looms on Oct. 7.
In the meantime, the Bees turned to Friday’s game at Cicero-North Syracuse, where the defenses took over and B’ville had to settle for a 0-0 draw with the Northstars.
Through 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime, the two sides took turns trying to break the deadlock. With a few more opportunities, the Bees couldn’t get any of its nine shots past C-NS goalie Ethan Doerschuk, while Sean O’Key got a turn in the net for B’ville and made six saves.
Having hit the midway point of its regular season, B’ville would get another big test Monday when it hosted defending sectional champion Liverpool. Two nights later, Henninger visits Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, with the Bees playing at Corcoran Saturday at 9 a.m.
