Lakeland tops Burnt Hills to advance
By Stan Hudy BINGHAMTON, N.Y. » History is a part of sports, teams have winning streaks, shutout streaks and championship streaks. For a lot of teams the goal is to be the opponent that ends any of those streaks.
On Saturday afternoon the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake field hockey team became a part of Lakeland’s current unbeaten streak which extended to 20-0 this season and may have been a part of a possible ninth-straight New York State Public High School Athletic Association titles if they are successful Sunday at Maine-Endwell High School against Section IV’s Vestal.
“We said ‘No tears, here.’” Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake coach Kelly Vrooman said after the Spartans 3-0 loss to Lakeland. “There is nothing that we could have done any differently. Our girls have come a long way over the last couple years. We faced them five years ago, lost 7-1, and to have a second half just a 1-0 game, our girls fought hard.”
Vrooman wanted to see her squad advance to the Class B final four and relished the chance to see Lakeland again.
“This is what we have to do to be at that level,” Vrooman said. “To be at the championship game these are some of the things that we are going to have to work on.
“Everything they do is perfection. They play the perfect game, the big balls are perfect, our big balls are 50-50. Sometimes they are lifted up, sometimes you know, just everything they do is with precision and they’re accurate.”
Lakeland converted three of its 13 penalty corners Saturday afternoon, Julianna Cappello 12 minutes into the first half and then Caroline Cahill 25 minutes in for a 2-0 halftime lead.
The Hornets (20-0) shut out the Spartans (14-6) not only in penalty corner opportunities, but also shots on cage in the state semifinal.
“You play so deep on defense that the girls have a hard time pressing up to give you some more momentum on offense and that’s what we were struggling with even the last 10 minutes when we tried to create some more offense,” Vrooman said. “I told them it’s O.K. if we get four or five goals scored against us because we’re not going to win, we’re down 2-0, so have to score goals so that means you have to press up.”
The Hornets had answers to every offensive attempt Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake could throw at them and then turned the offensive tide back towards the Spartans cage and junior goalie Rachel Kamppila.
“Their passing, they wouldn’t just take it in, they would take it find a gap and pass it to the open girl and it would go bouncing down the field,” Rachel Kamppila said about the Hornets offense. “They would make sure that the ball was in the circle when they were taking their shots and they got a lot of corners called on us. You can’t help it when that keeps happening.”
Knowing about the Hornets current winning streak, championship streak and the 2012 outcome Kampilla said the Spartans were ready.
“We really want to play hard, put in as much effort as we can and this morning that was still the feeling,” Kampilla said. “We wanted to come in, play as hard as we can.
“They are a good team and it’s tough, but I think we played our best. It was difinaely my best game all season.”
The message from the loss for the Spartans wasn’t ‘Good luck next year’, it was more like ‘See you next year’ as Burnt Hills only losses include state finalist Vestal, Section II Class A champ Saratoga Springs and Section II runner-up Shenendehowa.
“It’s a process and it’s a mindset that they’re good enough to get to that next level,” Vrooman said. “There are just the few things we’ve got to work on all yearround, it’s not something you can do in two months.”