Baldwinsville boys soccer sunk by 2 early goals, loses weather-delayed Class AAA state semifinal

Middletown, N.Y. — Lightning, thunder, driving rain and stadium issues made Saturday night’s Class AAA boys soccer state semifinal a four-hour odyssey, but Commack put the game in a vice-grip just 10 minutes in and didn’t let go, no matter what Baldwinsville, the weather or the lights at Middletown High School had to say about it.

Commack’s Ferenc Bagi scored in the third minute and the ninth minute, and the Cougars added one more in the second half while silencing the Bees in a 3-0 win to knock Baldwinsville out of the state tournament and snap its 17-game winning streak.

After 21 minutes of play, lightning in the area caused a weather delay of about two hours. Play resumed at around 8:45 after initially starting around 6:15. The game went so long that the automatic timer for the stadium lights – set to turn off automatically every night at 10 p.m. – sent the entire field into darkness with just over a minute remaining in the game and a Commack shot in midair.

The goal was disallowed, but the damage had been done four hours earlier. Though Baldwinsville played much more evenly with Commack after the restart, it never really came close to getting even on the scoreboard.

“A couple of defensive lapses is really all it was,” Bees head coach Tim Scheemaker said. “Even after the (first) goal, I thought we worked it around well, got the ball in their penalty area. It was really just an uncharacteristic lack of composure from us.”

Commack’s first goal came on the game’s first shot, a sitter for Bagi right near the penalty spot. Six minutes later, he finished another from almost the same location. Bees goalie Enzo Falso got a hand on it, but the ball squirted past him and into the back of the net.

A dozen minutes later, the entire Middletown High School complex was evacuated.

The Bees hung out in the Middletown gym and talked about what they could improve on. They messed around with each other. They shot some hoops.

When they came back out to the field two hours later, they controlled the possession, but couldn’t threaten Commack’s net.

Baldwinsville finished the first half with just one shot. The Bees totaled only four on the night.

“(The delay) helped us, we grouped together, reset, talked about it,” junior midfielder Jack Dutter said. “And for the majority of the second period of the game, we started taking it to them, finding our momentum. But at the end of the day, those two goals killed us.”

Baldwinsville usually relies on attacking with four and serving the ball into the box from the wide areas. But Commack’s back four cut out numerous passes and were as good in the air as any team Baldwinsville faced all year, but newly crowned Class B state champs Westhill, Scheemaker said.

“The thing I was probably most disappointed about that we normally do really well is our service into the box was not as clean, not as crisp,’ Scheemaker said. “Too high, too far, just didn’t give us a real chance to get on the end of them, which again, is uncharacteristic of us.”

“That was what we were missing,” Dutter said. “That final pass.”

In the 57th minute, Commack’s Brayden O’Boyle put the game out of reach with the Cougars’ third goal.

Baldwinsville graduates 15 seniors, including starting midfielders William Stevens, Tamer Abraham and Aidan Holcomb, forward Dylan Blaisdell, defender Jagger Rademacher and goalie Enzo Falso. The Bees return several key contributors like Dutter, who paced the team this year with 15 goals and nine assists.

Next year, Baldwinsville will attempt to make a fourth straight trip to the state playoffs and a third trip to Middletown in four years.

“I can just tell already this team is so much more different than other teams,” Dutter said. “…That’s why I’m confident going into next year because I got however many other guys to back me up.”