Spartans, Black Horses claim titles
SCHUYLERVILLE, N.Y. » It might have been the sixth straight Class B title for Burnt Hill-Ballston Lake in Section II, but by the looks of the celebration, it was clear that the consistent winning has yet to get old.
The Spartans took a 4-2 win against Queensbury, getting a lead in the first eight minutes and not letting it get close the rest of the way. It’s been since 2011 that a Burnt Hills season didn’t include a section championship.
“Winning these games, it just feels so much like we’re a family,” senior attack Christina Pedone said. “We work so hard for this. It’s not like we have one good player. We have a selection of good players. There’s some really good seniors on the team, there’s juniors that carry us and sophomores that carry us.”
The idea is that the program is a strength that sustains itself. The success cycle doesn’t end because it keeps reinforcing the next class of athletes.
Caroline Muller, Sadie Mitchell, Sydney Plemenik and Courtney Kruzias all scored goals for Burnt Hills. They said the goal
was to not allow the ball to even get into their defensive side of the field. So while it wasn’t a perfect effort, it was a strong one.
The win will give Burnt Hills a date with the Section III champion at Shenendehowa high school next week. The Spartans did a good job controlling the tempo of the game and then, because of it, they won another title.
In the team photo, the players held up six fingers. They might not have been there for all of them. But they’re a part of a program that can’t seem to lose.
“We look at every year very differently,” head coach Kelly Vrooman said. “And this year we had a group of girls who were talented. Again, we take one year at a time. I think it means we have some tradition here.”
Class C
Hoosick Falls is a mainstay in the Class C title game. They won the title last season, a year when Schuylerville only made it to the semifinals.
But a year later it was Schuylerville that took the title for the second time in the last three years. This game was never in doubt. They posted a 5-0 shutout and got to celebrate on their home field.
“It’s huge, obviously Hoosick Falls is a titan as far as Class C field hockey goes,” an emotional Black Horses coach Erin Lloyd said. “Their record, repeatedly throughout the years, they’re in this game basically every year. Coming in against them, we knew we had to come out strong. There was no letting anything up.”
Lloyd, who is due to have a child next Tuesday, was coaching her team loudly through the final seconds. Her assistants were shouting for the team to “Finish it” even with the lopsided score.
Alice-Voell-White, Grace Hanahan, Morgan Gunter, Alison Burnham all scored. Gunter scored twice. They came early and often and left little doubt. Before the game started, the team congregated outside the locker room blasting music. Clearly the team was pumped from the get-go.
“This is the most important game of the season,” Burnham said. “We’ve been working up to this game all season. And we were really pumped. We were getting really pumped in the locker room. This win means a lot to us.”