On hot day, deep freeze play wins

Spartans’ season ends in frustration as playoff foe plays keep away

SCHUYLERVILLE — The Queensbury girls’ lacrosse team, on a hot and steamy Wednesday evening, got to experience the same level of frustration the squad from Saratoga Springs felt an evening earlier having to play from behind as a Section I opponent stalled.

John Jay-cross River, a program that experienced a loss in Class B state regional play against the Spartans in 2022, extended a one-goal lead at halftime to four and spent the last 10 minutes making no attempt to score. The Wolves made that strategy work and produced a 10-7 Class C victory at Schuylerville to advance to quarterfinal action Saturday.

Queensbury, winners of five consecutive sectional titles, concluded its season at 15-3. After the teams shook hands, coach David Huth addressed his Spartans and praised them for the season they produced.

“We won the section, which is something that isn’t easy to do. We’ve done it five times in a row,” Huth said. “It was an absolutely amazing season considering the hurdles we overcame, the players that weren’t able to play this year. I would describe as a battle all season with the weather at the beginning of the year, players being dinged at the beginning of the year and just battling every single game. We came back in multiple games this year to win. There just wasn’t enough time to battle back to win this one.”

“Each season, we come in thinking what can we do? We had a number of younger players step up,” said Queensbury senior midfielder Kendra Ballard, who paced the Spartans with four goals. “It is amazing because they have so many years, so that helps our program.”

John Jay-cross River (17-2) established a 5-4 advantage at halftime. Back-to-back goals by Dartmouth-bound star Mia Puccio provided the Wolves a 10-6 cushion and they proceeded to win the next draw and play keep away.

“It is one of those stupid rules in girls’ lacrosse in high school: there is not a shot clock and no stall,” Huth said. “We’ve run into this a couple of times. Saratoga got beat on it (9-7 Tuesday) against Suffern, who did it to us a couple of year ago. It is unfortunate that the game has not