UTICA – Four games and four defeats had left the Baldwinsville football team in something close to a desperation mode as the second half of the regular season got underway.
At last, though, things turned right for the Bees as, on a warm Saturday morning, it went to Utica Proctor and rode a quick start to a 23-8 victory over the Raiders.
Even though B’ville was 0-4, it had only dropped one league game, to Cicero-North Syracuse, so there was still time to work and fix on all the problems it had dealt with so far.
At Proctor, everything clicked early. Before the first quarter was done, the Bees had a 16-0 lead, and everyone was responsible for it, starting with the defense.
The game’s first points came from a safety when Isaiah Pickard tackled a Raiders player in the end zone. Off the ensuing free kick, B’ville drove to Proctor’s 37-yard line, where Greg Marinelli went deep and found Logan McIntyre in the end zone.
Before the Raiders had a chance to regroup, the Bees had the ball again late in the period, again moved into Proctor territory – and again saw Marinelli find McIntyre for a touchdown, this time covering 39 yards.
Unable to maintain that pace, B’ville cooled off and went scoreless in the second quarter, but its defense smothered the Raiders and maintained that 16-0 margin going into the break.
Another solid Bees drive in the third quarter led to a third Marinelli TD pass, this one going 25 yards to Nico Wellman. Overall, Marinelli only completed five of 12 passes for 121 yards, but more than half of them were for points.
Wellman, with six carries for 58 yards, led a modest B’ville ground attack. Still, he caught three passes for 70 yards as John Widrick went three-for-three on extra points.
And though it gave up a fourth-quarter Raiders scoring drive to break up the shutout, B’ville’s defense still was in top form, especially Dylan Garcia, who amassed 13 tackles to set the unit’s pace.
Aaron Clark finished with eight tackles, Jordan White getting seven tackles as McIntyre and Kallen Kennedy finished with five tackles apiece.
Now the Bees will travel Friday to face another big rival, Liverpool, with kickoff at LHS Stadium at 6:30. The Warriors started 3-0 before getting drilled by Christian Brothers Academy 59-0 ahead of the Brothers’ big showdown with C-NS.
