CENTRAL NEW YORK – Full of determination and fueled by plenty of emotion for what has taken place on and off the field, the Baldwinsville girls soccer team set out to win a Section III Class AAA championship.
Doing so would require the top-seeded Bees to upend defending champion Cicero-North Syracuse – but the Bees could not quite pull it off, seeing an early goal make the difference in a 1-0 defeat Saturday night at SUNY-Cortland.
Having split with the Northstars in their regular-season meetings, B’ville had settled upon a defensive game plan to deal with the young but extremely potent C-NS attack.
And for most of the game it worked, the Bees able to keep the ball out of its own net and give itself ample chances to get on the board.
Yet it always worked from behind because, in the game’s opening minutes, Katalina Lawrence, one of just two seniors on the entire Northstars roster, put it past Abby DeSimone for the go-ahead goal.
Though more than 70 minutes remained, that would prove to be the game’s only tally. A stubborn C-NS defense turned back everything the Bees attempted on them, all the way to the final horn as a 12-4-2 season concluded.
It may have not helped B’ville to have no stress in last Wednesday’s AAA semifinal at Jamesville-DeWitt, handling no. 5 seed Rome Free Academy 5-0 while C-NS had to grind out a 1-0 decision over Fayetteville-Manlius.
RFA, who had upended Liverpool 2-1 in the quarterfinals, never got a chance to establish itself as the Bees struck for three goals in a span of less than five minutes in the game’s opening stages.
Cruising from there, B’ville waited until the second half to tack on two more, with Natalie Hollingshead the focal point throughout the evening as she put together a three-goal hat trick, her first of the season.
Audra Salvagni and Nadia Guzman also took turns finding the net, with Gabrielle Awwad and Maddie Polky earning assists. Polky also helped DeSimone in goal as the pair got five saves between them.
So began an evening full of success for B’ville soccer as, at Fulton a few hours later, the boys Bees took out no. 2 seed F-M in its sectional Class AAA semifinal with a second-half surge that produced a 3-0 victory.
Both sides had ample opportunities in the first half, and while it remained 0-0 early in the second half B’ville started to produce a wave of attacks utilizing its deeper roster against a fatiguing F-M back line.
Then in the 54th minute it all changed. Seconds after Hornets goalie Jeremy Albert made a spectacular stop on a Brayden Schrader header, sophomore Jack Dutter lobbed a perefct corner kick to the same spot and Owen Daly headed it past Albert.
Up 1-0, the Bees remained aggressive and two minutes later forced an F-M foul inside the 18-yard box, resulting in a penalty kick that Dutter converted. With 7:59 left, Schrader returned and this time his strong header off a corner kick found the net.
On Monday night, B’ville will face Liverpool (a team it lost to twice in the regular season) in the sectional Class AAA final on the same Fulton turf where it beat the Warriors in the 2023 final on the way to a state title-game appearance.
