CENTRAL NEW YORK – Four consecutive victories to open the season may have convinced the Baldwinsville field hockey team that it was not far off from the dominant pace it set last fall on the way to the Section III Class A championship.
One night, and one opponent, may have changed those thoughts.
Hungry and remembering how it lost to the Bees in last fall’s sectional final, Cicero-North Syracuse came to Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium last Tuesday and, controlling matters from start to finish, prevailed 6-1.
It took all of two minutes for the game’s tone to get set, C-NS forcing two penalty corners and converting on the second of them, Chrissy Wagner emerging from a scramble to take a pass from Gabby Wameling to score.
Early in the second quarter, it went to 2-0, again thanks to Wagner, who got free on a fast break and fired in her second goal, this time assisted by Eva Farone.
B’ville in both instances played better after those strikes, yet still trailed by two at the break and then saw it get out of hand when, in a 36-second stretch of the third quarter, Shannon Brown hit on a pair of goals.
Down 4-0, the Bees took a time-out and finally started to attack with regularity, Julia Schultz netting a goal assisted by Bridget Roy, but the Northstars would close it out as Nicole Conklin scored in the fourth quarter and Wagner closed out her hat trick in the final minutes.
Whatever happened in this game may have carried over, for when the Bees met Rome Free Academy on Friday it could not get on the board and lost, 1-0, to the Black Knights.
Fiona McMahon’s first-half goal got RFA in front, and though Caley Gee turned back everything else and finished with eight saves, B’ville could not answer that goal, with Black Knights goalie Kaylee Rodriguez recording five saves.
B’ville would be back home Monday to face Fayetteville-Manlius before back-to-back games against East Syracuse Minoa and Fairport this weekend.
