Frank leads Saratoga to Class A crown
Junior has 2 goals, 2 assists in win over Shen
SCHUYLERVILLE, N.Y. » The Saratoga Springs field hockey team was willing to lose two battles against rival Shenendehowa during the regular season, as long as they won the war that would be the Section II Class A final Monday afternoon at Schuylerville High School.
The Blue Streaks embraced the role as much of an underdog as junior leader Lindsey Frank put away two goals, assist on two others and had senior goalie Renee Banagan deliver in the cage for the 4-3 championship victory.
“We stuck to our game plan and we definitely used each other and I think that was the difference between us and them,” Saratoga Springs Coach Jo-Anne Hostig said. “I really think that we stuck to our game plan.
“They’re a great team, a great goalie, I just think together, collectively we did what we needed to do and it was great.”
Even before University of Richmond commit Lindsey Frank scored 85 seconds into the contest Hostig was confident about her Blue Streaks.
“(Goalie) Renee (Banagan) was phenomenal, the defense was phenomenal, the offense came back to help us,” Hostig said “I didn’t have a doubt that they weren’t going to get it in and that’s like a really weird feeling to have, but I felt like as a whole it was going to be ours and it was really scary at the end.”
For nearly every tally that the Blue Streaks (16-2) had on Monday, Shenendehowa (16-2) had another.
Less than seven minutes after Frank’s score, the Plainsmen’s Jenna Graf knotted the contest
at one goal apiece. Frank added her second score with less than 13 minutes to go in the first half and eight minutes later it was Graf matching with her own second goal of the night to tie the contest at two apiece.
With less than three and a-half minutes left in the first half the Blue Streaks’ Katelyn Ginley punched a goal through on a penalty corner for the 3-2 halftime team.
Saratoga Springs went up two goals 90 seconds into the second half on Emily Leonard’s goal from Frank for a 4-2 lead. The Plainsmen (16-2) would pull within a goal on Eliza Branch’s tally assisted by Howard one minute later, but it would be enough to dismiss Saratoga.
“You have to come and be ready to go and our offense was definitely on tact and they were ready to go and I just think we forgot about Lindsey Frank,” Shenendehowa Coach Jeanne Frevola said. “We talked about that, we had a plan and we didn’t execute it.
“In the second half I had a lot of other people in there and they seemed to be able to hold it.”
While Hostig had a calm, confident feeling heading into the final, Frevola saw a potential upset long before the Plainsmen squad took the field for warm-ups.
“I didn’t think we had a very good warm-up,” Frevola said. “I thought our warm-up was off and I thought our defense was off track in the warm-up and it just seemed everybody seemed a little bit off.
“Which when you’re the No. 1 seed you can’t be a little bit off, you have to come in ready to play. I explain it to my own children, I explain it to these guys, it’s a team’s last game, somebody is going to go home and they’re going to put their best effort forth.”
The early tally set up Frank’s two goals, two assist afternoon and the Blue Streaks eventual win.
“I’m not going to lie, we were kind of surprised,” Frank said. “We’re like OK a corner, let’s do this and then it went it. We’re like ‘Wow, we’re in it. Our mental game today was just phenomenal, we just kept our heads in it.”
It was the patience showed on the field while Hostig was jumping around on the sidelines, glancing at the scoreboard clock, consistently asking for call to go Saratoga’s way and all the time jumping up and down or raising arms when Saratoga tallied another goal.
“It was kind of difficult,” Frank said. “We were all overwhelmed and we just kept saying ‘Relax, take a deep breath, we’re still in it and just play our game and stay comfortable, not to panic.’”
The seven-goal Class A final was eye-popping for Hostig, but confident in her squad’s play against Shenendehowa.
“And it’s a one-goal difference, that’s the thing that’s the key with us when we play Shen,” Hostig said. “I can’t remember, not against a Shen, I can think of others. It was incredibly intense, but in the end we collectively held ourselves together and we didn’t freak out and that’s the biggest thing. From the back to the front we just truly stayed together.”
The Blue Streaks will now face Section III champion Baldwinsville noon Sunday afternoon at Shenendehowa who is hosting the Section II vs. Section III regional for all three levels.