Humbled by a defeat to Vestal in the finals of its own Huntington Classic on Aug. 30, the Baldwinsville field hockey team returned to practice with extra vigor, even as intense summer heat lingered.
This meant that the Bees were quite eager to start Salt City Athletic Conference play at Liverpool last Wednesday night, as evidenced by the way it took apart the Warriors in a 4-0 decision.
Twice in each half, B’ville converted, and it maintained a quick tempo while taking care of its own end, the Warriors managing seven shots, all of them stopped by Hailey Boda.
Erika Van Slyke led the Bees, scoring twice, while single goals went to Angel Cooper and Hannah Norton. Emma Brushingham, Mackenzie Wodka and Bailey Nicholson had one assist apiece.
Before a key contest with Cicero-North Syracuse Monday at Bragman Stadium, the Bees first had to visit Cortland on Saturday afternoon, and it didn’t prove that easy as B’ville had to make a spirited comeback and go to overtime to beat the Purple Tigers 3-2.
Unafraid of its opponent, and perhaps catching the Bees looking ahead to a key Monday match with Cicero-North Syracuse, Cortland took advantage of its first-half chances as Rachel Kline and Abigail Ricottilli earned goals.
Trailing 2-0 at the break, the Bees took over in the second half, pulling even and then getting the goal it needed in the seven-on-seven overtime period.
Olivia Wachob led the comeback, converting twice as Van Slyke had the other goal. Leah Tuch got a pair of assists and Brushingham added an assist as each of Boda’s eight saves were needed.
Aside from the match with C-NS (who has started 4-0), the Bees also host Fayetteville-Manlius on Thursday and take on Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Saturday afternoon.
