Early in the fourth quarter of last Tuesday’s Section III Class A semifinal at Bragman Stadium, the Baldwinsville boys lacrosse team faced a crossroads it may not have counted on dealing with at this point in the post-season.
The top-seeded Bees only led no. 4 seed Cicero-North Syracuse by one in a game marked by long possessions, lots of physical play and a sense that the sectional championship favorites could face an untimely exit.
But B’ville weathered all of these possible trials and, scoring twice in the late going, put away the Northstars 7-4 to set up a sectional title-game showdown with West Genesee, who turned back Liverpool 11-6 in the other semifinal.
Two previous encounters between B’ville and C-NS had proven lopsided in the Bees’ favor by a combined 36-12 margin, and the Northstars knew quite well it could not play at the quick tempo the Bees wanted.
To that end, the first half turned into a showcase of hits and grit, not skill and speed. And that was just what C-NS asked for, the game tied 1-1 after one period before a brief scoring surge allowed B’ville to lead 4-1 at the break.
The grinding pace continued deep into the second half, with the Bees unable to break away and the Northstars working hard to cut the margin to one, 5-4 while its defense, anchored by goalie Joe Bartolo, kept making big stops.
Only with a pair of late goals did the Bees put things away, again with the likes of Austin Bolton and Spencer Wirtheim at the forefront while its own defense, led by Braden Lynch and Caleb Voorhees, made the stops they needed.
Before all this, there was no. 2 seed West Genesee against no. 3 seed Liverpool. The Wildcats had won both times in the regular season, the first a 14-13 thriller at Mike Messere Field, the second a 13-9 decision at LHS Stadium one week before the playoff encounter.
Those results suggested that the Warriors had the capability of making WG worry, but here that never proved the case as the Wildcats put together one of its best sustained stretches of the season, on both sides of the ball.
WG’s defense smothered Liverpool throughout the first half and limited opportunities, while goalie Luke Staudt was earning most of his 10 saves.
The Warriors resisted as much as it could, but fell behind 9-1 by the third quarter, only then finding a way to produce scoring opportunities, though the comeback fell short.
For Liverpool, who finished its season 9-7, Cade Clouthier and Brandon Mancuso each scored twice, with Kyle Caves earning a goal and two assists. Ryan McGowan was held to a single goal as Liam O’Neil recorded 12 saves.
For WG, Anthony Dattellas, with three goals and one assist, led the way, with Brad Cunningham and Alex Rosa each scoring twice. Jack Delaney had a goal and two assists, with Ryan Sheehan and Nick Louise each getting one goal and one assist.
