FACE-OFF WINS
Ballston Spa dominates the circle, transition in 13-6 win at Saratoga
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Win, pass, score, repeat.
It’s a formula that has been working for the Ballston Spa boys lacrosse team this season, earning its fourth-straight league win, a 13- 6 Suburban Council victory on the road at Saratoga Springs Thursday afternoon.
Ballston Spa won 16 out of the 21 face-offs in the circle Thursday afternoon, led by senior face- off specialist Austin Deskewicz and then saw Joe McDonald bury five goals and Zac Schuette add three more as the Scotties jumped out to a five-goal lead before the Blue Streakswere able to find the back of the cage.
When not on the offensive, Ballston Spa owned the ground game, securing the loose prize at a four-to- one clip and utilizing a quick, long ball transition game moving up field like an NBA team on a fast break for quick scores.
“It’s something we’ve been
building as a program trying to become more athletic and being able to do that and play fast,” Ballston Spa coach Lucas Snow said. “I think once you play outof-section teams it’s just a faster level where we’re trying to play that way.
“I think execution-wise, we’re not quite there yet but, but playing fast, we’re there. But executing-wise we got to improve.”
While Ballston Spa controlled the ground ball game, many were self-inflicted opportunities with errant passes to a defender or uncontrolled catches created scrums on the Saratoga Springs grass surface.
“Anytime you’re going to try to push the ball and try to runasmuch aswewould like to you’re going to have some mistakes,” Snow said. “It’s the nature of trying to play a little bit unsettled.
“We certainly need to clean up that end of the game. Watching the ball into our sticks before we make that next play with it or we lose the opportunity if the ball doesn’t get into our stick. So if we can improve in that area and that execution of simplistic catching the ball before wemake the next play with it, I think that’s what we’re ultimately looking for.”
The Scotties were not bashful on offense, outshooting the Blue Streaks 42-15 and continually putting pressure on goalie Ryan Flemming who was credited with 13 saves out of the 26 shots on cage. Ballston Spa’s James Nash earned 12 saves on 18 attempts.
With each goal the focus returned to the face-off circle where Deskewicz dominated the start, combining with Alex Yerou, winning 18 out of 23 starts.
“There is definitely a lot of craft to it, a lot of skills that go into it,” Austin Deskewicz said. “I’m definitely getting into that rhythm, with the ref’swhistle. The rest of it is just being able to get that craft in, keep doing the same thing, and keep doing the work.”
Not only was Deskewicz able to anticipate the start of the next session, but was also able to run, roll and escape with the ball to start the Ballston Spa offensive scheme.
“You can win the clamp on the face- off, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to gain the possession as the other team could get the ground ball from their wings,” Deskewicz said. “I’m definitely being able to secure the ball and thenmove it to one of my wings.”
Likemost teams sequestered inside of gyms for the bulk of the spring season to date the Scotties are grateful to be outside and even with a win, the outdoor experience exposed some additional practice notes.
Bottom line is you want to getwin and then you can go from there and work on the things that we need to work on,” Snow said. “We talked about execution. It’s been something to every game we’ve played this year, pushing the ball fast.
“It’s hard to practice when you’re in a gym and then you come out to a field, this is our fourthtime outside of games, so it’s something that we’re going to have to go with and work on.”