Perhaps the only concern the Baldwinsville boys soccer team faced after handing unbeaten, state no. 2-ranked Fayetteville-Manlius its first defeat of the season Oct. 7 was letting down in the remaining regular-season games that followed.
This was especially the case since Cicero-North Syracuse, who came to Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium last Tuesday night, had played the Bees to a 0-0 draw in their initial meeting on Sept. 22.
Here, though, B’ville would take the rematch, again getting a shutout in a 2-0 decision.
Through most of the first half, the long deadlock between C-NS and B’ville remained, but the bees’ Jack Todora broke it thanks to his unassisted goal in the 28th minute.
Thanks to that solid Northstars defense, B’ville only had a handful of opportunities, but that was all it required as Brandon Mimas earned his 22nd goal of the season with 16:58 left, Josh Price earning the assist. C-NS took five shots, all stopped by Donovan Moore.
The regular season ended Thursday night, at Liverpool, with B’ville, winners of seven in a row, needing one more victory to force F-M to claim its own regular-season finale for the outright regular-season title in the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division.
But Liverpool, remembering how the Bees humiliated them in a 5-1 romp earlier this season, got payback in a tense 1-0 thriller in front of a large home crowd at LHS Stadium.
Defensively, the Warriors closed down the lanes that opened so easily for B’ville’s attackers the first time around. And that task got more urgent after Ben Root scored off a feed from Caleb Munski to put Liverpool in front.
Holding his won in the net, Moore made nine saves. The Bees could not capitalize on this work, though, held to six shots, all stopped by Ben White as the Warriors got one of its biggest wins of the season.
B’ville and Liverpool might not be done with each other. Drawing the no. 2 seed in the Section III Class AA playoff bracket, the Bees face no. 7 seed Rome Free Academy in Wednesday night’s quarterfinal round at 6 p.m.
Should the Bees win there, and should the no. 3 seed Warriors knock off no. 6 seed CBA one night later, a B’ville-Liverpool semifinal would break the deadlock between the two and determine who would have a shot at the sectional title.
