Black Horses fall in regional
The Schuylerville girls lacrosse team started out its Class D sub-regional on fire, seemingly scoring at will against Section IX’s Millbrook and then the lights went out — on and above Centennial Field at Burnt HillsBallston Lake High School.
The Black Horses scored the first five unanswered points but after the Blazers found their footing on the turf two runs of seven and five unanswered goals gave Millbrook its first regional win in program history, 15-10 Tuesday night.
“I think we started stronger, I think they finished stronger, that was kind of the pace of the game,” Schuylerville coach Erin Lloyd said. “We definitely came out on fire, maybe too much too soon and then kind of sat back. I used the term ‘lazy’ because that’s what I saw and they know it. You hit that
threshold so quickly where you get up so quickly and then you sit back and you can’t do that at this level at all.”
Schuylerville’s Amy Moreau and Hailey Abruscato scored twice before Alison Burnham ripped off an early hat trick for a 5-0 lead.
Then it was Millbrook’s turn as Kaitlyn Daly turned it on for the Blazers, scoring twice in the first half and then adding four more tallies in the second half for a game-high six goals and two assists.
The Blazers cut the lead to 7-5 at the half as the storm brought rain and a thunder delay moved the start of the D sub-regional 45 minutes subsided.
Millbrook came out of the half, on fire. The Blazers scored four unanswered goals for its first lead, 8-7 on Daly’s fourth goal of the day and on her fifth goal of the game for an 11-9 lead. Then the lights went out at Centennial Field.
The scoreboard, press box, school and area lights remained on, but the lights above the field went dark.
The previous thunder delay and subsequent delayed warm-up pushed the contest outside of the scheduled time for the field lights. A quick connection to Musco Lighting via its iPhone app brought the lights back on in less than 15 minutes as they cycled back on to full power and play was resumed.
Both teams were allowed to huddle near their sideline as the lighting process resumed.
“We were like ‘This is our time’ because our coach didn’t have any more time outs,” Schuylerville junior midfielder Alison Burnham said. “We were like ‘Let’s go, we’re ready, we’re going to come back,’ and we played it out until the end. They just got us.”
Millbrook was fully recharged from the second delay on Tuesday night and maintained its pressure on the Black Horses, taking advantage of each Schuylerville miscue.
“Even the clear bounding and going out of bounds, a pass to our unopen girl, we had a lot of that,” Lloyd said. “We did some things that didn’t help ourselves, but again you have to take it as a learning moment.
“This is a learning opportunity for them. We only have two seniors on the field, three total and the bigger piece for these returning players which is the bulk of them is the lessons to take away from it.”
Tuesday was foreign territory for the Black Horses, after winning their first Section II title last week and making their first regional appearance.
“It was a tough loss because in the beginning we really had our momentum and I think we thought we had it and then we lost it,” Burnham said. “They kept scoring and we got our heads down and I don’t think we were prepared for this I guess.”
Lloyd expects the Black Horses to be back New York State title hunt next year.
“I told them, (Millbrook) has been here before, there is a lot to be said about that,” Lloyd said. “This is our first time at this level.
“They have nothing to be upset about, this is the best season in our program history and they’re literally paving the way and making the stepping stones from where we got to last year and one step further this year.”