Holding a lead against Cicero-North Syracuse has been Baldwinsville's kryptonite this season.
In the Bees' win over the Northstars earlier this season, the team squandered an eight-goal lead and had to sweat it out at the end. When the teams met a second time, Baldwinsville blew a four-goal lead and lost the game. In Tuesday's Section III Class A Section III championship, the top-seeded Bees got out to an early lead and held on to it, defeating the second-seeded Northstars 18-11 and claiming their second straight section championship.
"I think (the team) didn't let C-NS' goals rattle them," Baldwinsville coach Megan Tabor said. "Last time, every time C-NS scored, you could see they kind of sulked a little bit, and today the focus was, 'Listen, they're a good team, they're going to score. You just have to keep playing your game. They have the talent. They can win the game.'"
Early in the game, both offenses displayed patience, and it paid off with a flurry of goals. Baldwinsville started the scoring with a goal from Lea Otts just more than two minutes into the game, and C-NS' Sophia Nesci scored a minute later to keep things tied.
The Bees and Northstars traded goals again, this time from Brianna Peters and Gabrielle Putman before Baldwinsville began to pull ahead.
Quick goals from Otts, Jaya Madigan and Sophia Muscolino put the Bees up 5-2 with 13:49 left in the first half.
The Bees jumped out to a 10-5 lead at halftime thanks in part to Sierra Natoli's three goals and, two each from Otts and Peters.
It was a spread-out scoring attack from Baldwinsville, who had five players score three goals in the game. Natoli, Peters, Carlie Desimone, Mia Pozzi and Sophia Muscolino each recorded hat tricks in Tuesday's game.
"If you look at last year, I was face-guarded in the championship game, and every single other person stepped up," Pozzi said. "So there's a lot of weight off of every single person's shoulders knowing that every single person on the field can score, and it makes it a really hard team to stop when every single person can score."
In the second half, Putman did her best to kickstart the comeback for C-NS. She scored 30 seconds in to make the score 10-6.
Unlike the first few meetings, Baldwinsville did not allow C-NS to get rolling.
"We believed in ourselves," Pozzi said. "That was the biggest factor. We realized that we were the better team and that we just believed in our capabilities. We believed in every single player on the field."
Baldwinsville went ahead 15-6 before C-NS made one last attempt at a comeback.
Putman scored her third goal of the night and Elizabeth Smith scored two straight to bring C-NS within six goals with 13:25 remaining in the game.
The Northstars' last gasp was not enough. Baldwinsville poured it on with three more goals to secure the title.
Tabor credits the experience of winning a championship last year as part of the reason the team was able to respond as it did in Tuesday's game.
"We had a lot of returners out there who played last year," Tabor said. "So they felt that they know how to play through those big games and it definitely helps. They don't have as many nerves as they could have."
Putman and Smith led C-NS (16-2) with three goals each.
Baldwinsville (14-4) will play the Section IV champion in the regional round of state playoffs at 5 p.m. Thursday at Ithaca High School.
