Regardless of how it turned out, nothing between the Baldwinsville boys soccer team and its chief antagonists, Fayetteville-Manlius, was likely to get settled until the post-season, and maybe not until a Section III Class AA title was at stake.
Still, the course of events of Tuesday night’s match at Swan Pond left a particular mark, the game only lasting 50 minutes before dangerous weather forced it to end with the Bees and Hornets still even at 2-2.
There was plenty of reason for hype. B’ville entered the night 10-0 and no. 5 in the state Class AA rankings. F-M was 9-1 and no. 12 in that same state poll, its only blemish a 3-0 defeat to the Bees at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium early in September.
Remembering how B’ville had dominated that first meeting from start to finish, F-M was far more aggressive from the opening kickoff of the rematch, constantly putting pressure on the Bees’ defense.
And that didn’t change even when Griffin Seeber flicked home a corner kick from the point in the 12th minute. Just 10 seconds later, F-M forward Cheech Pagano worked through several B’ville defenders and sent a hard shot past Andrew Taylor to tie it, 1-1.
They continued going back and forth until the 28th minute, when F-M’s Ziad Abdul-Malak’s hard-angle shot from the right found its way into the net.
Now it was the Bees’ turn to quickly answer as, less than three minutes later, Tyler Johnson streaked down the right side and sent a low shot zooming under the grasp of F-M goalie Chris Szidat.
At halftime, the teams were sent indoors for a 30-minute delay when lightning was spotted. Just as the delay ended and the second half got underway, rain and wind arrived, adding to the challenge for the rest of the game.
But that only lasted for 10 minutes. When officials spotted more lightning in the distance, again the game halted, this time for good, and after 10 straight victories B’ville had its first blemish of the fall.
And all this happened after the state Class AA no. 11-ranked B’ville girls soccer team had its home game with Cicero-North Syracuse postponed and moved to Oct. 18 by that same weather system.
This meant that the girls Bees would have a nine-day gap between its 2-1 win over New Hartford on Sept. 28 and its own big-time rematch with F-M next Monday night, having defeated the Hornets 2-0 in mid-September.
On the other hand, B’ville’s boys team was back in action Thursday night, hosting Nottingham, and again had to work through the rain, but still dominated its match with the Bulldogs, prevailing 9-1.
Brennan Walsh was unstoppable, netting a career-best four goals to go with one assist. Malik Davis had a goal and two assists, with Steve Foertch, Jared Kantak, Brian Jung and Riley Belknap also scoring. Jonson, Jung, Seeber and Jack Branigan earned assists.
So the Bees would take an 11-0-1 mark into home games next week against West Genesee and Liverpool that follow the B’ville girls’ big match at F-M.
