UTICA – Back-to-back defeats to Cicero-North Syracuse and Corcoran, where it scored a combined seven points, left many to wonder if the Baldwinsville football team was, again, getting let down by its offense.
An emphatic answer was provided in Saturday’s game at Utica Proctor, where the Bees roared to life in a manner than the Raiders could not handle, leading to a 39-18 victory as B’ville improved to 4-2 overall.
It took less than nine minutes for the Bees to top its entire output of the previous two weeks.
Sam Mellinger broke through Proctor’s secondary on a 29-yard dash to the end zone on his team’s opening possession. Then B’ville’s defense forced a fumble and Ethan Haust recovered it, leading to another drive that, at the Raiders’ 12, saw Caden Cox find Nick Huhtala in the end zone.
Again, the Bees’ defense came through, halting a Proctor drive inside its own 20 early in the second quarter. Then it kept things quiet until a big finish to the half.
Cox threw his second touchdown pass of the afternoon to Amir Akins from nine yards out. And right before the break, B’ville again reached the Proctor nine and, again, from there Cox threw to the end zone, where Huhtala caught it.
All this created a 25-0 halftime margin, but the Bees weren’t done unleashing its newfound passing game.
After the Raiders finally got on the board in the third quarter, B’ville answered three minutes later when, from the Proctor 41, Cox connected with Huhtala for the third time on a scoring pass.
To its credit, the Raiders cut the margin to 32-18 late in the fourth quarter before a Bees drive clinched it, Mellinger scoring on a four-yard run.
Achieving an enviable balance on offense, the Bees saw Cox complete 10 of 14 passes for 176 yards, while Mellinger gained a career-best 200 yards on 20 carries. Colin Doyle had three catches for 63 yards.
Defensively, Nick Foster was everywhere, recording 17 tackles, four of them solo, with Nick Huhtala getting 16 tackles and Kaleb Paul had 12 tackles, six of them solo. Amari Akins had nine tackles as Mellinger and Vince Samoraj each got seven tackles. Ethan Haust recovered a fumble.
B’ville sits in fourth place in the Class AA division standings, with the regular-season race up for grabs after Liverpool knocked off state no. 5-ranked Cicero-North Syracuse 21-14 and Corcoran won its fourth in a row over Rome Free Academy.
One more home game awaits the Bees as Henninger is set to visit Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium this Friday. Kickoff is at 7 p.m., an hour later than usual, since the game will be telecast on Spectrum Sports.
