Even though its own efforts had much to do with it, the Baldwinsville field hockey team needed some help in order to secure the outright Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division regular-season title.
Entering last week, the Bees and Cicero-North Syracuse were tied for first, each with 4-1 league marks after the Northstars had defeated B’ville 4-1 on Oct. 3.
But C-NS, who had won eight in a row, opened the door for B’ville last Tuesday when it took a shocking 2-0 defeat to a Liverpool side that was 2-9-1 going into that game.
Now, if B’ville could defeat Fayetteville-Manlius at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium a night later, it would have that league championship. And though it proved tense and exciting, the Bees did attain first place, edging the Hornets 4-3.
The defensive issues exposed in recent defeats to Whitney Point, C-NS and Cazenovia were still there for the Bees on this night, as it saw Susan Bansbach, Lindsey Kilpatrick and Maddy Duggleby score goals for F-M.
Still, B’ville led, 2-1, at halftime, and kept answering every time the Hornets produced a goal, and did so while its top scorer, Amanda Strenk, was held to a single assist.
Instead, it was Mackenzie Wodka leading the way by getting two goals and one assist, while Emma Brushingham and Erika Van Slyke earned the other goals. B’ville overcame 14 saves from Hornets goalie Catherine Barr.
With that game, and the league title in the books, and a showdown with Rome Free Academy on Saturday, perhaps B’ville overlooked the game in between against Moravia on Thursday afternoon – and paid for it with a 3-2 overtime defeat to the Blue Devils.
The grass field helped Moravia, who, led by Madison Becker (who scored twice) overcame Clare Vredenburg scoring on one goal and assisting on the other (by Olivia Wachob) to forge a 2-2 halftime tie.
All through the second half, a host of Bees opportunities were turned back, Blue Devils goalie Brittany Klaus stopping 22 of the 24 shots she faced, allowing Moravia to get to the seven-on-seven OT and win it there.
And now came the trip to RFA Stadium, a regular-season finale vital to the confidence of both sides. And only B’ville emerged from that game with the confidence intact after Strenk led a 7-1 destruction of the Black Knights.
This was the early-season form that proved so effective, with the Bees attacking – and converting – almost at will in the second half following the establishment of a 2-1 lead before intermission.
RFA had no answer for Strenk, who kept getting open and kept putting shots into the net until she had set a career mark with six goals, moving her season total to 29. Emma Brushingham had the other goal, adding an assist as Wodka, Vredenburg and Lauren Brushingham had the other assists.
Despite this great finish, B’ville had to settle for the no. 2 seed for the Section III Class A playoffs as C-NS got the top seed.
This means that, for next Monday’s semifinals at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, the Bees will again take on RFA, the no. 3 seed, as the Northstars faced Fayetteville-Manlius in the other semifinal. Those games start at 3:30, with the winners advancing to the Oct. 29 final on the turf at F-M.
