Through 16 regular-season games, 15 of them victories, the Baldwinsville boys soccer team rarely trailed and, on most occasions, secured stress-free victories, richly earning the top seed for the Section III Class AA playoffs and a no. 2 state ranking, too.
But when no. 8 seed Rome Free Academy showed up at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium for last Wednesday’s sectional quarterfinal, it turned into a close affair that built up in tension before the Bees were able to break through late, its patience rewarded with a 1-0 win.
As can often happen in soccer, one team can dominate possession time and find itself kept off the board, as B’ville was during the first half, the Black Knights playing effective defense and a string of Bees shots flying off target.
The second half continued this pattern, B’ville constantly attacking and constantly getting turned back, with RFA’s pair of goalies, Noah Hammon and Aidan Goodwin, combining for 13 saves.
These are the type of circumstance that can, on occasion, produce an unlikely result if an underdog capitalizes on a counterattack. To its credit, the Bees never let the Black Knights do much, limiting them to a single shot.
Staying patient, B’ville finally got the goal it needed in the 59th minute, Chase Hornsey finding the net off a feed from Jared Kantak, and over the remaining 20-plus minutes the Bees were able to protect that margin without serious stress.
B’ville had made it through – and found out, 24 hours later, who it would face in the sectional semifinals while, at the same time, further realizing just how fragile any team’s place in the post-season can be.
No. 4 seed West Genesee’s 1-0 win over Cicero-North Syracuse means that the Bees and Wildcats would meet up Wednesday at Jamesvile-DeWitt, a berth in the title game at stake.
More significantly, Fayetteville-Manlius, the only team to give B’ville a blemish this season (a weather-shortened 2-2 draw on Oct. 1) was no longer in the Bees’ way.
Despite its 14-1-1 record and no. 6 state ranking, F-M was shocked in the quarterfinals by no. 7 seed Liverpool, who was once 3-10 before it won three straight games to close the regular season.
Then the Warriors dragged the Hornets through 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime at 0-0 before eliminating them in the seventh round of penalty kicks when F-M’s last shooter hit one off the crossbar.
Thus, it’s Liverpool against no. 6 seed Henninger, who got its own 1-0 quarterfinal win at no. 3 seed Utica Proctor, in an unlikely sectional semifinal to see who plays B’ville or West Genesee in next Monday’s final, also at J-D.
On that same Wednesday night, the Baldwinsville girls soccer team, with its no. 2 playoff seed, has its own sectional semifinal match with West Genesee at Central Square, with the winner to get F-M or Cicero-North Syracuse in Saturday’s final at Liverpool High School Stadium.
