BALDWINSVILLE – With nothing less than a championship push in mind, the Baldwinsville boys soccer team aimed for a strong opening statement in its Sept. 1 game against Liverpool at Pelcher-Arrcaro Stadium.
What happened, instead, was that the Bees surrendered two different leads, including one at the end of regulation, and had to settle for a 2-2 draw with the Warriors.
Having struggled so much against B’ville in recent years, Liverpool didn’t flinch when Evan Smith scored in the opening minutes for B’ville. Answering quickly, Edis Omerovic found the net, and it was 1-1 going into halftime.
Midway through the second half, a Warriors foul inside the 18-yard box led to a penalty kick that Johan Savage converted for the Bees. Trailing 2-1, Liverpool again pushed and, in the last minute of regulation, Omerovic tied it.
Neither side scored in the 20 minutes of overtime, and B’ville had to wait until it played two days later against Watertown to get into the win column, handling the Cyclones 4-0.
Even this game was nervous for a while, Watertown able to keep the Bees off the board in the first half. But once Smith scored 46 seconds into the second half off a feed from Abe Cavalieri, things began to open up.
Twice in the final 17 minutes, Smith would convert, giving him a hat trick as Cavalieri got the other goal. Assists were also credited to Will Stevens, Logan Hayes and Ryan Bullis.
Now it was B’ville against Nottingham, the team that knocked out the Bees in last fall’s sectional Class AA semifinal. Seeking a bit of payback, the Bees got it, blanking the Bulldogs 2-0.
Steady pressure led to one scoring play in each half. Not only did Smith and Bullis put in the goals, they assisted on each other’s scoring plays.
On the other end, Nottingham rarely made much headway in the face of a B’ville defense that limited it to five shots, all stopped by Nick Hollingshead.
This leads to a busy week of league games where B’ville would go to West Genesee before home matches against Henninger Thursday and Cicero-North Syracuse Saturday.
