Each season, the quest for the Baldwinsville boys soccer team is the same – to start in August and play into November, by which point the temperature might be 70 degrees colder.
That extreme drop turned into a real possibility when the Bees hosted a season-opening tournament last week, playing first-round games early on Tuesday morning to avoid a heat index that climbed to triple digits later that day.
B’ville enters 2018 in a fiery mood after an overtime defeat to Fayetteville-Manlius in last fall’s Section III Class AA final, and were quite impressive in the tournament’s opening round against Fulton, prevailing 4-0 over the Red Raiders.
After a steady first half, the Bees, up 1-0, pulled away in the latter stages as Josh Price earned a pair of goals. Brennan Walsh and Griffin Seifritz also scored as Connor Hamilton got two assists, with Jacob Way joining Walsh as they had one assist apiece.
Meanwhile, Rome Free Academy and Skaneateles played the other first-round game, going 3-3 through 80 minutes of regulation and overtime before the Black Knights prevailed 4-2 in penalty kicks.
So in Thursday’s championship game, it was RFA against B’ville as Skaneateles met Fulton in the consolation match.
The Bees had little trouble with the Black Knights, getting its second consecutive shutout with a 3-0 decision where, again, it scored just once in the first half, but got away later.
Overcoming nine saves by Black Knights goalie Chase Coluccio, Seifritz notched a pair of goals, with Walsh also finding the net. Alex Charest and Jason Hahn had one assist apiece.
The consolation game saw Fulton defeat Skaneateles 2-0 as B’ville headed to a stretch of three straight games against Syracuse city opponents – Nottingham, Henninger and Corcoran, in that order.
