ONONDAGA COUNTY – Just when the Baldwinsville flag football team looked poised to run away from all of its local competition, a payback-seeking opponent changed the equation.
Syracuse East, remembering its defeat to the Bees in the 2024 Section III title game, came to Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium Thursday night and, reversing recent trends, prevailed over B’ville 13-0.
Before this, one common factor in the Bees’ four-game win streak was a defense which rarely gave anything up.
When the Bees shut out Syracuse West 19-0 Monday afternoon, it marked the reigning Section III champions’ third shutout of the season.
Having already blanked Sherburne-Earlville (45-0) and Syracuse OnTech (53-0), B’ville repeated that effort against a Syracuse West side who was far more stingy, but still gave up a trio of touchdowns.
But it all turned around against Syracuse East, who remembered how the Bees shut them down 19-2 in last May’s sectional final and had started 3-0 this spring beating Cicero-North Syracuse, Fayetteville-Manlius and Central Square.
Even with several players out of town enjoying spring break, Syracuse East got on the board twice with touchdowns from Ta’kai Baker and played superb defense start to finish.
Any time B’ville threatened, East turned them back, most notably with a Silvia Cosgrove interception deep in East’s own territory when the Bees had gone inside the 20-yard line.
So begins a busy stretch where the Bees face Central Square Saturday and then, next week, hosts C-NS and F-M, going south to face Maine-Endwell in between those games.
