LYSANDER – Early-season returns seem to indicate that the Baldwinsville ice hockey team has a whole lot of work to do in order to make its annual championship push in Division I.
In the Bees’ home opener at Lysander last Tuesday night, it ran into a Fayetteville-Manlius side that took enough advantage of enough opportunities throughout the night to defeat B’ville 3-0.
The hosts did not lack for puck possession or scoring chances, with the Bees ultimately taking 36 shots, all of them stopped by Hornets goaltender Chris Finger.
Once in each period, F-M managed to put one past Nate Sotherden, who finished with 21 saves. Joey Leveroni, with one goal and one assist, and Walker Thomson, with two assists, led the Hornets, the other goals going to Tyler Mayne and Greyson Mucha.
All of this brought a bit more urgency to the Bees’ non-league game against visiting Whitesboro on Saturday afternoon. Helped in no small part by a fast start, B’ville prevailed by a 6-3 margin.
During that opening period, the Bees reversed what happened against F-M, jumping out 3-0 thanks to goals from Brody Clookey, Mitch Burlingame and Casey Gilbert.
Whitesboro battled back in the second, scoring all of its goals in that frame, but a second tally by Gilbert allowed B’ville to stay in front, 4-3, and it would get away in the final minutes thanks to goals by Brady Garcia and Trevor Sutton.
Brayden Evans, Rylan MacCollum, Alessio McGrane and Tyler Machalek each earned assists, as did Sutton. Zach Bice got a turn in goal and recorded 16 saves.
B’ville’s third straight home Tuesday is against the new CNY Fusion team that combines Fulton and Liverpool. Then, on Friday night, the Bees go back to Shove Park for its first game against West Genesee since last winter’s sectional final that the Wildcats won 2-1 on the way to the state Division I championship.
