ONONDAGA COUNTY – Going into the last week of their respective regular seasons each of the Baldwinsville soccer teams were quite aware of the work it would take to contend once the Section III Class AAA playoffs started.
For the girls Bees, the lessons were evident just by the way it played in each of its meetings with defending sectional champion Cicero-North Syracuse.
Where as the first game in September went 3-2 in the Northstars’ favor, the rematch last Friday at Bragman Stadium was a fine all-around effort by B’ville which resulted in a 2-0 victory.
Defensively, the Bees closed every gap C-NS had run through the first time, limiting the potent Northstars to just five shots, all stopped by Abby DeSimone.
Audra Salvagni made sure that defensive effort was rewarded. Once in each half, Salvagani was part of the scoring plays, netting a goal and assisting when Maddy Polky found the net. Nadia Guzman assisted on Salvagni’s goal.
Before this, B’ville already had showed vast improvement against a particular opponent last Tuesday night at West Genesee, yet still took a 2-1 defeat to the Wildcats.
WG controlled matters in a 2-0 match when the teams first met in September. Now, in Camillus the Bees did all it could to stay close and even got a second-half goal.
The Wildcats won it, though, led by Maria Snyder, who assisted on goals by Anna Nelson and Addison Kensey as its goalkeeper, Julia Poissant, turned back seven of B’ville’s eight shots.
On the boys side, B’ville hosted Utica Proctor last Tuesday night and, while it offense produced enough to win, its usually strong defense struggled and it produced a 4-3 loss to the Raiders.
Then, facing a vastly improved C-NS side on Saturday afternoon, the Bees put all the pieces of its game together in a comprehensive effort that led to a 4-0 shutout of the Northstars.
Steadily increasing pressure, B’ville, up 1-0 at halftime, pulled clear late, with Owen Daly earning a goal and assist. Will Stevens, Tanner Abraham and Brayden Schrader also got goals as Derek Barr earned two assists. Single assists went to Enzo Falso and Aidan Holcomb, with goalie Sawyer Barr stopping all five shots he faced.
