There is no further step that the Baldiwnsville girls soccer team can take beyond what it did in 2017 – namely, earn the program’s second state championship.
And it took just one game for the Bees to get a glimpse of the difficulty defending that crown, as it lost, 4-1, to Section II power Bethlehem in its Aug. 31 season opener.
From that title team, 10 seniors graduated, and it included a group of strong defenders such as Gabby Piontkowski and Carolyn Brussel, plus goalkeeper Meaghan Wilson. Also, Katie Pascale left to concentrate on other sports.
Those departures, along with those of Graisa Madden and Laura Kick, makes the task tougher in 2018, but for 80 minutes B’ville kept up with Bethlehem, and even erased a 1-0 deficit with Kelsey Delola’s second-half goal.
Only in the pair of 10-minute overtime periods did the Eagles get away, finding the net three times and making the Bees realize that plenty of work remained to get a new defensive unit to work well together.
Nearly a week later, the Bees played again, hosting Christian Brothers Academy, and here was where the young attacking duo of Hannah Mimas and Simone Neivel was unleashed in the course of a 5-1 win over the Brothers.
Despite dominating the flow of play throughout the first half, B’ville found itself trailing 1-0 as a CBA counterattack led to Mari Saya charging in and scoring on a right-footed shot into the top-left corner of the net.
Mimas was constantly giving herself chances, and it paid off when, in a 47-second span, she twice broke up the middle, took long passes and fired shots past CBA goalie Abby Benware.
Neivel took her turn by landing a goal less than four minutes before halftime. Then B’ville’s defense withstood a big CBA push late in the second half and clinched it when Delola scored twice in the final five minutes.
Safely in the win column, B’ville set out for Herkimer Community College and the Hall of Fame Tournament, where it took on two more Section II foes, meeting Shaker on Saturday and Niskayuna on Sunday.
On Saturday morning, B’ville put away Shaker 5-2, the key a first half where a more diverse attack presented itself. Mimas scored, but so did Sophia Cavallaro and Gwenyth Madden.
And though the Blue Bison converted twice in the second half, moving within 3-1 and 4-2, the Bees answered each time, Delola netting two more goals, one of them a penalty kick.
Moving to Sunday afternoon’s game with Niskayuna, B’ville continued to show terrific form, striking early and rolling to a 3-0 win over the Silver Warriors.
It took less than six minutes for Jenna Boutilier to score off a feed from Delola and put the Bees on the board. Minutes later, Delola netted a goal, doubling B’ville’s lead to 2-0, where it stood at halftime.
And Delola wasn’t done, striking again 59 seconds into the second half as her corner kick took a deflection, perhaps off a Niskayuna defender, and found the net.
So B’ville brings a three-match win streak into a big Tuesday test against West Genesee, off to its own 4-0 start, before going to Rome Free Academy Friday night.
