CORTLAND – Twelve minutes of pure excellence helped the Baldwinsville boys lacrosse team move within one victory of the program’s first-ever state championship for the first time in three decades.
The Bees’ complete dominance of the second quarter of Wednesday’s state Class A semifinal against Fairport at SUNY-Cortland turned a two-goal deficit into a four-goal advantage – and led to a convincing 13-5 victory over the Red Raiders.
Fairport, the Section V champions, was the same side who edged the Bees in this same state semifinal round the last time the state tournament was held in 2019.
Most of the players had changed, but the stakes were the same – a trip to the state title game.
Nearly seven minutes passed before a goal, from the Red Raiders’ Kyle Gould, that Ryan Quinn answered barely a minute later.
But goals by Gould and Mitchell Monte put Fairport up 3-1 by the end of the first quarter. Gould’s goal was particularly impressive in that he fell down, kept possession, got up and, despite solid defense, put it past Nick Cary.
All this seemed to do, though, was goad B’ville into playing its best game in the pivotal second period.
It started in the face-off circle, where Jake Czyz won back-to-back draws leading to goals by Colin Doyle and Ryan Hollenbeck. Then Dylan Wirtheim put the Bees in front and Brayden Penafeather-Stevenson used his long stick to assist on Trey Orday’s goal and then convert himself.
All the while, B’ville’s defense, led by Austin McClintic, Pat Otts and Tucker Macknik, got more aggressive every time Fairport had the ball, not even allowing shots to reach Cary and forcing a string of turnovers.
It was yet another Red Raiders turnover that led to a devastating goal 0.9 seconds before halftime, B’ville taking it over and rushing downfield, where Doyle found a wide-open Hollenbeck, who beat McLean Ralston just before the horn.
Up 7-3 at halftime, the Bees were kept quiet for most of the third quarter, yet only allowed one goal, which it answered in a big way when Hollenbeck hit his third goal on a rebound and Ordway converted with 13.4 seconds left.
Cary stepped up early in the final period with a pair of point-blank stops, with Ordway taking on his fourth goal and Doyle converting again with 7:07 left, all but locking up the Bees’ trip to the state final.
Aside from Ordway, Hollenbeck finished with three goals and Penafeather-Stevenson got two goals and one assist. Keegan Lynch was held without a goal, but dished out three assists as Carson Dyl and Leo Johnson (who had a late goal) also got assists.
Northport, the Long Island champions, will await them Saturday at 12:30 at Hofstra University, having defeated Scarsdale 13-9 in the other state semifinal. B’ville hopes to avoid the fate of its lone predecessors that got this far in 1992, who lost the state final to another Long Island team, Ward Melville.
