Having waited 10 1/2 months to get another shot at the side that denied them the Section III Class AA championship in 2018, the Baldwinsville girls soccer team could afford a bit more patience.
Both patience and skill, along with a healthy dose of toughness, was needed Tuesday night at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, with the Bees waiting until the late stages of regulation of a tense, exciting battle with Fayetteville-Manlius to get the goals it needed to defeat the Hornets 2-0.
The strong starts by both teams in 2019 suggests that B’ville and F-M are on a course toward another sectional final. The Bees entered this game 5-1, having won four in a row, while the Hornets had won each of its first five games.
With plenty of skilled players on both sides, a lot of scoring chances were expected, and B’ville got one less than three minutes into the game when Hannah Mimas, who scored eight goals in her previous three games, hit a hard shot from the left side off the crossbar.
And that was as close as the Bees would get to score in the early stages. Though it controlled the early flow of play, B’ville’s opportunities waned, and F-M began to assert itself late in the first half, stretching that effort into the second half.
A series of corner kicks and free kicks gave the Hornets plenty of opportunities to move out in front, but the Bees’ defense, led by Leah Burrer, Sydney Smith, Emma Warren and Gwyneth Madden, were effective in turning them back.
No stop was bigger, though, than the sliding save made by a charging Jenna Boutilier when F-M’s Hannah Knych charged in from the right side for a solo run at the net in the 50th minute. Not only did it keep the game 0-0, the B’ville goalie energized her teammates, who attacked with more consistency the rest of the way.
With 14:09 left, Mimas, working from the right corner, drew two defenders and passed it to the middle, where Pia Cavallaro one-timed a shot that eluded Hornets goalie Sydney Mahr and slid inside the right post.
Not content with that 1-0 lead, B’ville made more key defensive stops, and Mimas returned to clinch it with 2:59 left, taking a pass from Hannah Johnson and drilling a hard shot from a tough angle into the top left corner of the net.
Less than three weeks will pass until the Bees face F-M again Oct. 7, this time on the Hornets’ home turf.
In the meantime, B’ville hosted Rome Free Academy on Thursday and had to work hard to beat the Black Knights by that same 2-0 margin.
Once again, it was Mimas getting the Bees on the board, only this time it happened in the first half, her goal assisted by Madden, though RFA’s defense did a solid job the rest of the half to keep it 1-0.
That slim margin remained in place until, with 18 minutes left, Mimas doubled it, this time scoring off a pass from Taylor Metcalf.
Twice more this week, B’ville would be at home, against West Genesee on Tuesday and a rematch Saturday with the New Hartford side that gave the Bees its lone defeat of the season on Aug. 30, with a trip to Liverpool in between.
