Though it took a decade and a half, and involved more than a few close calls, the Baldwinsville girls soccer program now has a second state championship to add to its annals.
The Bees snared that ultimate prize on a chilly Sunday evening at Cortland High School, shutting out Long Island power Massapequa 2-0 with the same formula that had worked all season – steady, strong and experienced defensive players complementing a young and exciting front line.
This result was particularly sweet for the B’ville seniors that, two years earlier, lost to this same Massapequa squad in the 2015 state final.
“It’s surreal,” said one of those seniors, Carolyn Brussel. “We wanted to win really badly, and we played like it.”
“Not many teams make it this far,” said fellow senior Gabby Piontkowski. “This whole season, we worked our tails off, and we made our goal.”
B’ville head coach Kathy Morse had high praise for her seniors, saying that their acceptance of the younger players was critical in producing a strong team chemistry that propelled them to heights only reached once before.
And there was a bridge to that 2002 state championship team – Lisa Deil, who was the head coach for that landmark effort and had recently returned to the program as Morse’s assistant coach.
Deil said that, for good luck, she wore the same commemorative bracelet she gave to her players after the ’02 state title was won. If superstition means anything, it did so here.
When the Bees arrived at the state final four, it had plenty of motivation, plus the energy necessary to play well – which was on display right from the outset in Saturday night’s 3-2 semifinal win over Section IX champion Monroe-Woodbury at SUNY-Cortland.
Before the game was five minutes old, B’ville had a 2-0 lead. Freshman Brandon Mimas converted the rebound of sophomore Simone Neivel’s long shot off the crossbar and, 90 seconds later, Graisa Madden scored to double the margin.
It remained that way until early in the second half, when the Crusaders cut the margin to 2-1 on Kiki Goodwin’s free-kick goal, only to have the Bees charge down the field and, 25 seconds later, answer with Neivel’s goal, assisted by Madden.
That quick answer was needed, because Monroe-Woodbury did not get discouraged, pushing hard until Kayla MacKenzie pounced on a shot Meaghan Wilson could not hold and scored with 11:23 left.
Right to the end, B’ville had to hang on, getting fortunate when a possible Crusaders tying shot clanged off the crossbar in the closing minutes, but the Bees made it through.
Across town a day later, Massapequa stood as the final obstacle, having survived a 1-0 overtime battle with Clarence in the other state semifinal. Morse said that, to improve the defense, the Bees moved back its midfielders to offer more support to the Bees’ usually-formidable back line.
Given that help, Brussel, Piontkowski, Leah Burrer and the rest of the B’ville defenders proved even more effective, and any time Wilson was tested, she handled the shots to earn her most important shutout.
With the defense shored up, the Bees could afford patience on the other end, but didn’t have to wait too long. In the 25th minute, B’ville earned a corner kick and Kelsey Delola delivered it to the middle, where sophomore Katie Pascale flicked a shot just inside the left post past Chiefs goalie Haylee Poltarek.
Pascale wasn’t done with her heroics. Early in the second half, Massapequa picked up its tempo and attacked, and during a scramble in front of the net Wilson was out of position, but just in time Pascale kicked the ball out of danger.
Sparked by that play, the Bees kept sending its forwards on long runs and looked to time passes to them. In the 56th minute, one of those passes sprung Mimas open down the right side. Beating her Chiefs defender, Mimas drove a hard shot that Poltarek could not handle until she was past her own goal line.
Now with a two-goal margin, B’ville shut Massapequa down the rest of the way. A large fan contingent clad in red rose to its feet in the final two minutes, saving its loudest roar for the closing whistle.
A few minutes later, the players had medals around their necks, and B’ville, at last, had a second state title, celebrated both in Cortland and back home when fire trucks escorted the team bus back into town Sunday evening, concluding a day – and a season – Bees players and fans will not soon forget.
