BALDWINSVILLE – Fifty-one weeks later, the Baldwinsville football team can get even in the most satisfying way possible.
Denied the Section III Class AA championship by Cicero-North Syracuse last November at the JMA Wireless Dome, the Bees will battle the Northstars again in the playoffs, this time in a semifinal game next weekend at Bragman Stadium.
This follows a pair of lopsided opening-round playoff games Friday, with B’ville rolling past Rome Free Academy 58-20 as C-NS handled Henninger 54-14.
At Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, the Bees met the same RFA side it beat 55-20 in the Sept. 9 season opener, and would largely lean on its ground attack to put away the Black Knights.
Five minutes into the first quarter, Greg Marinelli scored on a 25-yard run and threw a two-point pass to Nick Foster. After RFA cut it to 8-6, the Bees quickly answered, Brandon Levin going 42 yards for the score that put B’ville ahead for good.
In a 90-second stretch early in the second period, Levin found the end zone again on a 33-yard run and, after the Bees got the ball back, Kaleb Young went five yards for the touchdown.
A long drive late in the half led to Levin’s third TD on a one-yard plunge eight seconds before intermission, where B’ville found itself in front 34-13.
After Levin scored again early in the third quarter, the Black Knights converted, but on the very next play from scrimmage Young dashed 50 yards to the end zone.
Another RFA touchdown was answered in less than a minute when, in a rare instance of going through the air, Nico Wellman, from the Black Knights’ 15, found Kaleb Paul for the score.
Griffin Killian belted a 37-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, having also converted six of seven extra points while also recording five tackles on defense.
Levin picked up 202 yards on 16 carries, while Young, proving himself a strong second option on the ground, set a career mark with 127 yards on 11 carries. All told, the Bees gained 381 rushing yards.
Defensively, Dylan Garcia and Toby McIntyre led the way, Garcia with seven tackles and a fumble recovery as McIntyre earned a pair of interceptions to go with his six tackles. Paul and Foster also got six tackles.
Now it’s B’ville against C-NS, with the Bees eager to not just atone for the 2021 sectional final but also a regular-season meeting in September where it led late in the first half, only to see the Northstars take over and pull away to win 41-19. The winner gets to the Nov. 13 sectional final at the Dome.
