Defense leads Saratoga in semis
Blue Streaks advance to Section II Class A final
Saratoga Springs field hockey scored two goals early and played outstandign defense in a 2-0 victory over Shaker to move on to Sunday’s Section II Class A championship game against the winner of Guilderland and Shenendehowa.
For the first 18 minutes of the game, Saratoga and Shaker were in a defensive battle with both teams struggling to create chances. Neither defense allowed a shot and Shaker’s coach Allison Abdelnour called a timeout with 12:40 left in the half. Then Lindsey Frank came alive. The Blue Streaks junior first got the ball and worked it up the field solo. She had to weave between four defenders to get the ball into the Shaker zone. Shaker goalie Elain Roberts was faked out in the box and Frank made fired into the bottom left corner to get her team a 1-0 lead with 10:25 left in the half.
Frank got the ball again, this time in the Shaker zone and again worked past the Shaker defense to hit the same corner to give them a 2-0 lead heading into halftime.
One of the team leaders was huge on defense in this game was Jessie House. She had multiple clears in the game and was big on leading her team to this win.
House said the team wanted to come out fast and strong.
“At the beginning of the game we really wanted to score really fast and get the early lead before they could even think about scoring,” House said. “Lindsey did a great job, going down and getting two goals.”
The second half was all about defense.
Both teams’ defense managed to
work the ball out of their zone and not allow anything to get past them. Shaker had an early chance on a corner less than three minutes into the half, but Saratoga managed to clear it away.
The Blue Bison’s next best chance came when they got the ball into the Saratoga zone surrounded by multiple defenders. Blue Streaks goalie Renee Banagan managed to make a diving save and get the ball out, but it found another Shaker player. Alaine Genter managed to knock the ball away before it went into the net to keep the Blue Streaks at a 2-0 lead.
Right after, Hostig called a timeout to get her team back in the game.
Hostig said she called the timeout to relax her team.
“I called it to tell my team we had the ball, we were ahead and we were down on the other end,” Hostig said.
House said the timeout was big to the team keeping their heads together.
“We definitely worked together as a team, especially after that one timeout,” House said. “We got amped up and were ready to play and ready to work harder than we were before that. Before the timeout, we were not playing as good as we could, but afterwards, we definitely stepped it up.”
Abdelnour said it was a hard loss, with her team not being able to finish.
“It is something that has hung over our head a lot this year, was not being able to finish,” Abdelnour said. “When we have finished, we have played phenomenally and the improvement that this team has shown since the end of September to the beginning over October has been phenomenal. Unfortunately in Suburban council, we beat the crap out of each other. (My players) laid it all out there today and that is really all I can ask of them.”
Shaker finished the season 3-11 in the Suburban council, but beat Niskayuna in the first round and played a solid game against a tough Saratoga Springs team.
Saratoga Springs coach Jo Ann Hostig said that the defense was huge for her team.
“My defense held us in there and isn’t that what they say,” Hostig said. “Defense wins championships. Shaker came out with a much different game plan this time or maybe the turf helped them sustain what they needed to sustain. They were definitely different, faster team. I think the turf helped them show what they had. My defense stepped it up, we had our sticks down more and we were more composed.”
Abdelnour said the team has a lot of great athletes.
“I have a bunch of girls who are working toward playing year round and I think that is going to be a big game change,” Abdelnour said. “Hopefully we are going to have a surface change next year as well, so hopefully that will make us a little more competitive.”
Saratoga took the win 2-0 and now gets to work at the main goal, being Section II Class A champions.
House said one of the big things that can lead them to a finals win is communication.
“I think we need to communicate more, especially in the finals,” House said. “It is going to be a really tough game. We need to be as aggressive as we were this game and the games before. Our aggressive really leads to our success.”