For the most part, last week was a quiet one for Baldwinsville soccer.
Since the Section III Class AA girls bracket only had seven teams, the top-seeded Bees had a bye straight into this week’s semifinals, but weren’t completely idle, hosting Vestal for a scrimmage late last week in order to stay sharp.
Then, last Friday night, B’ville found out that it would face no. 4 seed Fayetteville-Manlius after the Hornets shut out Cicero-North Syracuse 4-0. The Bees-Hornets winner would get Liverpool or Rome Free Academy in the sectional finals. Both of those semifinal games take place Wednesday night, at Christian Brothers Academy’s Alibrandi Stadium, starting at 5:30.
Meanwhile, there were enough AA teams on the boys side to have a full slate of quarterfinals, so B’ville, holding the no. 2 seed, would take its turn last Wednesday against no. 7 seed RFA at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
At no. 13 in the state rankings, the Bees did not take the assignment lightly, notching early goals against the Black Knights and cruising from there to prevail by a score of 2-0.
Any possible tension was relieved when, just 10:41 into the game, Brandon Mimas passed it to Alex Charest, who converted to put B’ville in front.
It stayed that way until the last minute of the first half, when Brendan Walsh broke free and notched an unassisted goal, doubling the Bees’ margin. The defense took it from there, not letting RFA’s attack do much to eat into that margin.
A night later, B’ville watched as no. 3 seed Liverpool defeated no. 6 seed Christian Brothers Academy 1-0, setting up a Class AA semifinal this Thursday night at 7:30 at Jamesville-DeWitt between the Bees and Warriors after they split their two regular-season meetings.
Whoever survived this third encounter would get to a sectional final against F-M or Henninger, which will take place Monday night.
