While it is, at times, too easy to boil down an entire season, and a championship, to a whistle that was blown or a call that was not made, that is what happened to keep the Baldwinsville girls soccer team from repeating as Section III Class AA champions and getting a chance to defend its state title, too.
On a cold, wet Saturday afternoon at Liverpool High School Stadium, the Bees could not hold a second-half lead and fell, 3-2, to Fayetteville-Manlius, who laid claim to first sectional title in 22 years.
Great as the joy was for the Hornets to finally claim the title after many near-misses in the past two-plus decades, the pain for B’ville was equally strong, and it wasn’t just the hurt from a defeat.
Injuries that had haunted the Bees throughout the season struck again in the sectional final. Defender Fallon Morris left the game late in the first half, further decimating a back line that had already lost Maddie Bush and Leah Burrer earlier in the season.
At the time Morris was hurt, B’ville led 2-1, Simone Neivel having scored both of her team’s goals, one on a superb shot from the point in the 11th minute, and again in the 35th minute after F-M goalie Sabrina Suriani could not hold on to the ball and Hannah Johnson got possession, passing it to Neivel, who converted.
They were still 2-1 well into the second half, B’ville increasingly going into a defensive crouch. And then, in front of the net, two decisions – one made, one not – turned it all around.
In the 61st minute, another Hornets attack was marked by a foul called inside the 18-yard box against the Bees. That meant a penalty kick, which Anna Hartzheim, who had F-M’s lone goal in the first half, converted past a diving Isabella Cartier.
The teams traded runs and appeared to be bound for overtime when, with 2:21 left, Cartier went out to pick up the ball after a B’ville turnover, only to have it slip away from her. As that happened, she received a blow to the face.
Nothing was whistled, and play continued, with F-M’s Rachel Dobricki sliding the ball into the unoccupied net. The goal stood up, despite the Bees’ protests, and it proved the game-winner.
B’ville had rested for nearly two weeks before entering the post-season, doing so last Wednesday night as it took on no. 4 seed Cicero-North Syracuse in the sectional AA semifinals at Chittenango High School.
Just like its other two encounters with the Northstars this fall, it proved quite tough, but the Bees won, 1-0, as much due to the work of its defense than any other factor.
In both of the previous games against C-NS, B’ville fell behind early and had to come back to win. Now, though, the Bees would shut down the Northstars.
Morris, Sydney Smith, Gwenyth Madden and Trystan Foglia would face serious pressure in the early going as C-NS nearly went in front at the nine-minute mark, only to have Marissa Bukowski’s shot hit the left post.
From there, though, the Bees closed ranks and, for the most part, contained the Northstars. Jenna Boutilier only had to make three saves before exiting in favor of Cartier in the second half.
Meanwhile, C-NS’s own defense did a superb job containing B’ville and keeping it 0-0 through the first half. But that changed less than five minutes into the second half.
Having earned a corner kick, the Bees initiated a scramble where two shots were turned away, but the ball still drifted toward the left post and, before Olivia Haven could get there, Johnson had slipped in the go-ahead goal.
Though plenty of time remained, B’ville protected that one-goal margin. Cartier finished with six saves, including key stops on attempts by Ashlyn Slate and Morgan Siechen late in regulation.
The run ended against F-M, though, and B’ville would now see six seniors, including Morris, Bush, Foglia, Peyton Doyle and sectional Class AA Player of the Year Kelsey Delola, depart.
Yet a big cast of talent is back in 2019, from Boutilier and Cartier in the net to Neivel, Johnson, Burrer, Madden, Smith and Sophia Cavallaro, all of them hungry again after a tremendous season ended far too early for their satisfaction.
