The year-long quest of the Baldwinsville girls soccer team to make things right after seeing Liverpool wrest the outright Section III Class AA championship from them has met with complete success.
Kelsey DeLola and Katie Pascale fueled the Bees’ efforts as it beat the Warriors 3-0 Saturday night at SUNY-Cortland, the third consecutive year B’ville and Liverpool had met with the sectional title at stake.
There was plenty for the Bees to atone for. Besides seeing Liverpool beat them in penalty kicks in this same sectional final 12 months ago, the Warriors also prevailed 2-1 when they reunited late in September.
Even a 5-0 Bees romp over Liverpool in the Oct. 14 regular-season finale hadn’t made things right. Only reclaiming the sectional title would do that, but the entire tenor of the title game changed before it was four minutes old.
Liverpool’s talented senior midfielder, Bri Kovarik, was making an all-out sprint toward the net with the ball. B’ville goalie Meaghan Wilson met her just inside the 18-yard box and a collision followed.
Wilson was fine, but Kovarik did not get up. She had suffered a severe leg injury, one that required a stretcher and ambulance. The game was stopped for more than 20 minutes while Kovarik was treated.
DeLola said it was critical for the Bees to put Kovarik’s injury to the side. “We had to forget what just happened and focus on the game,” she said.
Pascale said that it was almost like the game started over, and that it took a while for B’ville to find any sort of rhythm, with few real scoring opportunities in the early going.
Then, in the 22nd minute, DeLola, working the ball on the left side, found Simone Neivel sprinting up the middle. With a perfectly timed pass, DeLola got it to Neivel, who in the clear shot it past Megan Merrifield inside the right post to put B’ville up 1-0.
And that’s where it stayed deep into the second half. As they had so many times before, B’ville defenders Carolyn Brussel, Gabby Piontkowski and Leah Burrer protected the net, with Liverpool unable to find anyone to help Carli Kovarik after the injury to her sister.
Still, the game was close until Pascale stepped up. With 10:52 left, DeLola delivered a corner kick to the middle, where Pascale waited until Merrifield stepped forward and then headed it past her.
Even with a 2-0 lead, Pascale wasn’t done, as with 5:41 to play another corner kick bounced around the 18-yard box until Pascale powered it home for the final goal of the night.
Now B’ville gets ready for the state tournament, and next Saturday’s Class AA regional final at Stillwater High School pits the Bees against the Section II champion, Shenendehowa or Niskayuna, with the winner advancing to the Nov. 11-12 state final four in the Cortland-Homer area.
