BALLSTON SPA BESTED BY THE BEST
Third quarter rally by Scotties can’t overcome Silver Warriors early run
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. » The Ballston Spa boys lacrosse team faced its toughest test of the season Tuesday afternoon and while they didn’t ace the exam, they earned top marks, falling to Capital Region perennial powerhouse Niskayuna, 13-9 in Suburban Council action.
To the casual observer, the opening quick 7-1 run by the Silver Warriors (7-0) wasn’t a big surprise, but Ballston Spa’s ability to stay in the contest emotionally and rally with a five-goal third quarter is the video worth watching for the Scotties in the film room.
“We went on our run in the first half, they went on their run in the third quarter, you just try to survive it,” Niskayuna coach Mike Vorgang said. “You try to survive it by getting a ground all, winning a face-off, making the save and we responded pretty well.
“They went to a zone, they pres-
sured us a little bit, they rode well, and they played really hard. I thought they played really well. For us we just have to continue to execute, we missed the goal few times; hit the pipe a couple times. It’s a good win.”
Niskayuna’s Griffin King led the way with his game-high five goals and two assists with Gabe Nish tacking on three goals and an assist in the win. Ballston Spa relied on Zac Schuette’s four goal afternoon with Joe McDonald tacking on a pair of goals with an assist and Sam Swingruber finding his Scottie teammates with his lone goal and three assists.
“The first half I didn’t play the best lacrosse and that’s on me,” Zac Schuette said. “The second half was a whole difference. I just had to come in and put a couple away, see the back of the net and gain that confidence.”
The Ballston Spa rally wasn’t a miracle game plan developed by Coach Lucas Snow and his staff; it was as simple as re-committing to the basics.
“We made a couple adjustments defensively, but I think most of it was that we started to get ground balls and possessions,” Lucas Snow said. “In the first half the goalie played amazing, I think he had nine saves in the first half, we had some decent shots, but we started to take a little bit better shots in the second half and with the face offs and groundballs, I felt like we did a better job in the second half.”
Many coaches dislike a loss being called a ‘moral victory’ if they don’t deem it as being worthy of the moniker, but Snow saw his Ballston Spa unit face a test, react to the errors and increase their overall grade as the game continued.
“The one thing Niskayuna has always done is kind of set the standard for section lacrosse and has tasked us all to kind of rise up to their level and that’s a credit to them,” Snow said. “They set the standard and it’s always a good test to play them.
“When we watch the film we’re going to focus on our guys more than the second half,” Snow said. As coaches we’ll look at the whole thing and start to build where what went wrong in the first half. Why didn’t we come out to play, how were our angles on defense and goalie and all that type of stuff. But as a team we’ll focus on how we responded in the second half.”