Winning the one that matters most (volume two)

Shenendehowa defeated Saratoga twice during the Suburban Council field hockey season.

Sunday, the Plainsmen led the Blue Streaks 1-0 late in the second half in the Section II Class A final.

Hunter Yourch scored with 4:46 remaining in regulation to tie it for Saratoga and Lindsey Frank, the Times Union’s

Player of the Year, sliced through the defense to score the winning goal with 5:54 remaining in overtime as Saratoga beat Shen 2-1 to claim its second straight title.

Frank, headed to play field hockey and lacrosse, added another layer to her legacy of scoring clutch goals in both sports.

A helpless feeling

The agony etched on Nacier Hundley’s face Sunday spoke to an issue the Holy Trinity football team dealt with throughout the 2018 season. The junior linebacker, the Times Union Small School Defensive Player of the Year in 2017, lamented at the Pride’s inability slow down the opposition’s running game.

“We just couldn’t stop the run,” Hundley said.

Chatham ran the ball 54 times for 236 yards, helping the Panthers deny Holy Trinity a shot at repeating as Section II Class C champions with a 28-18 semifinal win at Mohonasen High School.

Despite the Pride loading up their defense at the line of scrimmage in hopes of slowing down the Panthers’ rushing attack, Chatham managed to keep the chains moving down field with a series of short runs.

In fact, Chatham only registered five runs of 10 yards or more — with the longest being 20 yards from Triston Schermerhorn.

“We saw that when they played Stillwater and Voorheesville, we felt we could run the ball on them,” Chatham coach Rich Sitzer said.

“That has been the problem all year, the run defense not getting us off the field,” Holy Trinity coach John Barber said. “We could not get stops on third down. That was a point of emphasis last week and this week. We had a couple of stops, but we didn’t capitalize on it.”

Schermerhorn, who finished with 156 yards on 31 carries, praised the work of left tackle Scott Himmel, left guard Sean King, center Kyle Nehmans, right guard Shane Croke and right tackle Justin Van Wei in helping Chatham advance to the program’s sixth Super Bowl appearance.

The victory by Chatham Sunday was exactly one year to the day since Holy Trinity blanked the Panthers 44-0 in the semifinals.

Jones selects Rutgers

Mitchell Jones, a senior defender with the Albany Academy boys’ lacrosse program, has decided to play his college lacrosse at Rutgers University of the Big Ten Conference.

The Scarlet Knights finished 9-6 overall in 2018, falling to No. 2 ranked Maryland in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament.

Jones played his first three varsity campaigns at Queensbury.