When it prevailed over Rome Free Academy on Sept. 22, the Baldwinsville football team hoped that would turn a rough season around.
Seven days later, the Bees were at Utica Proctor, and had a great start, but could not carry it over to the middle stages as the Raiders, led by a career effort from Tasean Cooper, went in front and stayed there, handing B’ville a 30-17 defeat.
Since starting 2-0, Proctor had taken back-to-back defeats to Fayetteville-Manlius and West Genesee, so both teams felt some urgency, not to mention that the winner could feel better about reaching the Section III Class AA playoffs.
Dan Stehle gave B’ville fans a jolt in the first quarter, taking a handoff at his own 40 and, following strong blocks from the Bees’ line, went 60 yards to the end zone.
That, along with Garrett Selover’s 30-yard field goal, was sandwiched around a Proctor touchdown as Cooper scored from 20 yards out and Jabril Jarrett ran in for two points.
Things began to get away in the second quarter as the Raiders put together a pair of scoring drives while, at the same time, shutting down B’ville.
To build that 24-10 halftime lead, Proctor had Cooper score a second time on a 20-yard run and then add a third TD from four yards out. Each time, the two-point play was successful, run in on both occasions by Jarrett.
Stehle tried to spark a second-half Bees charge by going 50 yards for his second TD of the afternoon. He managed 115 yards on just five carries, but Proctor held the rest of the B’ville runners to just 42 yards.
Cooper’s fourth TD, on another four-yard run, restored the Raiders’ double-digit margin as Cooper finished with 231 yards, a career-best total.
Dan Stehle, Mike Tangredi and John Hernandez had 11 tackles apiece for B’ville’s defense. Christian Trechler had a part in nine tackles as Pat May and Lucas Ebert had seven tackles apiece.
B’ville, 2-3 overall and 1-2 in the Class AA-2 division, will have to try and slow 5-0, defending sectional champion Cicero-North Syracuse this Friday at 7 p.m. at Bragman Stadium. The state no. 7-ranked Northstars come off back-to-back tough road wins at F-M and West Genesee.
