CAMILLUS – At a familiar venue full of memories both pleasant and painful, another Baldwinsville ice hockey season ended at the expense of its most successful rival.
West Genesee, undefeated and still no. 1 in the state rankings, turned back the Bees 5-2 in Wednesday afternoon’s Section III Division I quarterfinal at Shove Park in Camillus.
B’ville’s 3-2 opening-round win over Ontario Bay on Feb. 13 in Lysander set up this opportunity, with the no. 8 seed Bees getting an extra day of rest due to various weather postponements.
If there was a chance for B’ville to pull off one of the biggest upsets in program history, it came from the fact that it was a far better team now than when it lost 9-1 to WG more than two months ago.
And it also helped that the Bees were fresh off a playoff win while the Wildcats had not played in more than two weeks.
Perhaps that was reflected in a scoreless opening period where the Bees’ defense turned back all of WG’s opportunities and had a few of its own.
In the second period, though, the Wildcats found its rhythm and utilized its depth to build a 3-1 advantage, ultimately stretching out that margin down the stretch.
Though Alessio McGrane and Rylan MacCollum earned goals and assists went to Dan Hinman and Rocco Weaver, the Bees could not keep pace, ultimately taking 20 shots to WG’s 40.
Combined, Chase Brooks and Zach Bice had 35 saves, but five different Wildcats – Jonah Vormwald, Jacob Pensabene, Ryan Long, Christian Ball and Parker Berg – earned goals, with Vormwald and Pensabene adding two assists apiece.
Concluding its season with an 8-11-2 mark, the Bees only graduate a handful of seniors, hoping its top scorers, including McGrane, MacCollum, Weaver and Hinman, come back along with Brooks, Bice and A.J. McPheeters, among others.
