Quite often in the last decade, the narrative in Section III Class AA boys soccer centered around whether Baldwinsville or Fayetteville-Manlius would finish on top, and often at each other’s expense.
That will be the case again in 2017, the no. 2 seed Bees and top-seeded Hornets clashing Monday night at Jamesville-DeWitt High School’s turf field to see who will claim the sectional title.
B’ville gave F-M its only defeat of the season, 3-1, on Oct. 7 at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium after falling to the Hornets 2-1 less than two weeks earlier at Swan Pond.
To get to this third encounter, each side had to win Class AA semifinal games Thursday night. On the turf at J-D, B’ville gained immediate revenge on defending sectional champion Liverpool, using a pair of early goals to put away the no. 3 seed Warriors 2-0.
Just 14 days had passed since the Bees’ regular season concluded with a 1-0 defeat at Liverpool, who got even for losing to B’ville 5-1 late in September. That result should have given the Warriors plenty of confidence and encouragement going into the playoff encounter.
Instead, it was the Bees in total command from the moment the game kicked off. Barely seven minutes had passed before a corner kick by Michael Allen got shuffled around the front of the net before Brennan Walsh slammed it past Ben White into the Warriors’ net.
More would follow in the 17th minute, courtesy of senior Brandon Mimas. Already with 25 goals on the season, Mimas grabbed a Liverpool turnover and sped past two defenders before converting on a low stinging shot to double the Bees’ margin.
The rest of the 60-plus minutes proved a stalemate, much to B’ville’s liking. On the one hand, its attack, while steady, could not add to its lead, with White recording nine saves.
That hardly mattered, though, because Liverpool’s offense never got on track. Allen, Ben Kinslow, Frankie Levanti, Alex Charest and the rest of the Bees’ back line followed the Warriors’ forwards everywhere they ran, causing plenty of frustration.
When it was needed, goalie Donovan Moore handled his part of the work, too, earning six saves, some of them on aggressive moves, especially in the early minutes, which kept Liverpool off balance.
As this went on, F-M defeated Henninger 2-0 in the other semifinal at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, netting goals from Grant Olick-Sutphen in the last minute of the first half and from Hunter Knutsen in the first minute of the second half.
