All along, the Baldwinsville field hockey team insisted that its record, which included nine regular-season defeats, did not reflect its overall quality, and that it could put things together once the season was on the line.
What happened in the Section III Class A playoffs backed up that confidence as the Bees rose from a no. 4 seed to upend top seed Fayetteville-Manlius 1-0 win in Monday’s semifinal round.
Despite the Hornets’ lofty position, B’ville was fortunate that this game was played on familiar home turf at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
That was one advantage B’ville enjoyed. Another was that it had played a first-round sectional game on Oct. 23, defeating Auburn 5-1, while F-M, with its 12-1-1 record and top seed, was off for nearly two weeks.
In that Auburn game, Julia Schultz took over, converting in the first half to help counteract a goal by Auburn’s Lauren Lowe, assisted by Ellie Dann, that kept things tight as B’ville went to the break with a 2-1 edge.
But in the first 20 minutes of the second half, the Bees got away, watching as Schultz ran her total to four goals for the first time in her varsity career, twice set up by Emma Brushingham, who had the other goals as Paige Morrissey also earned an assist.
Now the Bees faced F-M. Aside from playing on its home field and not having rust, both regular-season games between these sides were close, the Hornets prevailing by 1-0 and 2-1 margins, so B’ville knew that it could compete.
The Bees were able to have a fair amount of scoring chances during the first half as F-M struggled to get on track. One of those paid off when, just past the midway point of the half, a penalty corner saw Leah Tuch pass it to Brushingham, and the senior backhanded a shot past Hornets goalie Claire Grenis.
That one-goal margin held until halftime, but once intermission was over F-M began an all-out attack to try and get even.
Pinned in its own end, the Bees had to surrender 11 penalty corners. It took every bit of effort from defenders Mackenzie Dickman, Julia Guidone and Maren Roy, plus midifelders Tuch, Bailey Nicholson and Kendall Carni, to fend off the Hornets.
When it was needed, goalie Sarah Smiley was strong, too, officially credited with four saves, but also steering other shots just wide of the target, all the way to the final horn.
Having celebrated its biggest win of the season, B’ville then watched the other semifinal as defending champion Cicero-North Syracuse was ousted by Rome Free Academy in an epic battle that went through regulation and two overtimes before the Black Knights prevailed in a shootout.
So it’s on to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Sheveron Field for Sunday’s sectional final, B’ville now facing an RFA side it handled 4-1 back on Sept. 11, little imagining the ups and downs it would go through before it meets the Black Knights again.
