It was a light stretch for some of Baldwinsville’s notable winter sports teams – but not on the rink, where a month-long dry spell finally ended.
The ice hockey Bees were looking forward to Tuesday’s encounter with West Genesee at Shove Park, its first encounter with them since it shocked the then-unbeaten, state no. 1-ranked Wildcats in the 2018 Section III Division I semifinals.
Before that, though, two tough games took place late last week, starting with Thursday’s trip to Fairport where, again, the Bees’ offense was mostly stalled in a 5-1 defeat to the Red Raiders.
So when B’ville faced Whitesboro on Saturday, it was trying to break a five-game skid where it had only scored five goals while falling to Skaneateles, Cicero-North Syracuse, Rome Free Academy and Rochester McQuaid before the Fairport defeat.
Plenty of frustration was pent up – and it was unleashed on Whitesboro, the Bees piling up goals which made up for a fair amount of defensive lapses and led to a 9-5 victory.
Steadily, B’ville built a 6-2 lead through two periods, and answered the Warriors’ late charge, too, as, in a remarkable show of depth, nine different players scored those nine goals.
Alex Pompo, Parker Schroeder and Braden Lynch each had a goal and two assists. Jamey Natoli had one goal and one assist as Zach Cole, Michael Carni, Mike Marsallo, Christian Ficarra and Casey Scott also found the net. Assists went to Cam Sweeney, Ryan Muscatello, Matt Carner and Luke Hoskin.
Other than the trip to West Genesee, the Bees have no other games this week, with two more in the regular season Feb. 5 against Fayetteville-Manlius and Feb. 8 against Syracuse at Meachem Rink.
In girls basketball, B’ville did not play, having its “Coaches vs. Cancer” game last Wednesday against Nottingham postponed by an ice storm that closed schools that day. It will get made up on Feb. 11
However, the boys basketball Bees did play last Friday night, going to Nottingham and struggling plenty in a 69-47 defeat to the Bulldogs.
When these sides met Dec. 18 at Baker High School, Nottingham had prevailed 82-71, but now that B’ville had Jake Marshall back in the lineup, it fully expected to turn things around against the 6-7 Bulldogs.
But things began and ended on a rough note for the Bees, who fell behind 20-8 by the end of the first quarter and spent the next two periods attempting to make up ground.
Very little changed, though, and the Bulldogs ended like it started, with a 20-8 push through the fourth quarter as Jaden Ezomo (18 points), Mazi Jackson (14 points), Khai Pugh (13 points) and Dominic Dickson (10 points) each scored in double figures.
J.J. Starling led B’ville with 16 points, while Marshall finished with 13 points. But other than Starling, Marshall and Eric Casey (eight points), no other Bees player had more than two field goals.
Each of the basketball Bees sides would have tough games this week against Cicero-North Syracuse and West Genesee.
