All of the hard work done by the Baldwinsville boys soccer team in the 2018 regular season meant that it occupies the top seed for the Section III Class AA playoffs.
Getting there wasn’t too easy for the state no. 9-ranked Bees, who had to shut out its first six opponents, get tripped up at Liverpool and then avenge that defeat a few weeks later without any stumbles in between.
What was most impressive was the patience and maturity B’ville showed in last Tuesday’s game at the Gillette Road complex, where host Cicero-North Syracuse was tough, but Josh Price subdued them in a 2-0 decision.
Having lost 2-1 at B’ville earlier this season, the Northstars would play terrific defense throughout a scoreless first half, seeing Ethan Doerschuk earn most of his seven saves.
But while most of the Bees were contained, Josh Price was not. Twice in the second half, the B’ville forward pushed shots past Doerschuk, the only goals of the night as Brennan Walsh got credit for an assist.
Two nights later, B’ville welcomed Fayetteville-Manlius and put away the Hornets 3-0 to clinch the outright Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division regular-season championship.
Unlike their Sept. 22 meeting at Swan Pond that it pulled out 1-0, when the Bees went out in front, it wasn’t content with a single goal, striking twice more during the second half as Price scored once and assisted on one of Tyler Johnson’s pair of goals. Jason Hahn and Ben Rabe also picked up assists.
One more regular-season game remained, and on the surface it seemed a difficult assignment since Henninger had pushed B’ville on Sept. 4, only taking a 1-0 defeat, and had beaten Liverpool earlier this month.
However, the Bees remembered that first meeting, went to Sunnycrest Field and, properly focused, unloaded on the Black Knights in an 8-0 romp, its most lopsided league win of the fall.
Sungwon Chot stepped up and earned a three-goal hat trick as B’ville led 4-0 by halftime and kept on going. Hahn had two goals and two assists, with Price also converting as assists went to Teklu Habtesion, Nate Palmer, Griffin Seifritz, Sean O’Key and Nolan Murphy.
Not only did the Bees improve to15-1, it had built another shutout streak – eight in a row – going into the post-season.
The top seed means that B’ville hosts the winner of a first-round game between no. 8 seed Utica Proctor and no. 9 seed Rome Free Academy in the quarterfinals. Win that, and the Bees get F-M or Nottingham in the semifinal round next week.
