Having surrendered 67 points to Cicero-North Syracuse in its first defeat of the season on Oct. 6, the Baldwinsville football team had little choice but to regroup.
The Bees still had the incentive of securing a first-round Section III Class AA playoff home game, but had to defeat Nottingham Friday night at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium to have a better chance of that outcome.
With its offense still in top form, B’ville, no. 22 in the state Class AA rankings, cranked out 35 first-half points against the Bulldogs, leading to a 49-24 victory and an overall record of 6-1.
It was Senior Night for Ben Dwyer, and the Bees’ quarterback made sure it was special by breaking out in the first quarter, ending one drive with a 17-yard touchdown run and dashing 65 yards for another.
Unlike the previous two weeks, B’ville had no reason to rely on its passing attack. Instead, the tried-and-true ground game produced three more scoring drives in the second quarter.
Aquari Warner, who finished with 140 yards on 13 carries, scored his lone TD from 22 yards out early in the period. Dwyer returned to find the end zone a third time on an eight-yard run, while E.J. Edmonds joined in with a 16-yard TD dash just before halftime.
Ahead 35-12 at the break, the Bees didn’t let up. Twice in the third quarter, it drove inside Nottingham’s 20, and both times they led to touchdowns, Edmonds scoring both of them on runs of 23 and 12 yards.
When C-NS beat Utica Proctor 53-14 on Saturday, it meant that B’ville would finish alone in second in the Class AA-2 division and stay at home for the sectional playoff opener.
And that will pit the Bees against the third-place finisher in the AA-1 division, Fayetteville-Manlius, who went 4-3 in the regular season. B’ville and F-M clash next Friday night at 6:30, with the winner to face Central Square or Liverpool in next weekend’s semifinals.
