Saratoga’s Farr, Rice power past Colonie
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> In post-season play it’s often said it’s not how you start, but how you finish.
On Thursday, the Saratoga Springs boys soccer team did both as Evan Farr got the Blue Streaks started with a hat trick in the first half and Aidan Rice closed out the contest with two goals of his own for a 6-1 postseason win over Colonie.
“We have our shape and how we’re going to play and we’re going to do our best to play them. We didn’t make many adjustments to play against them,” Saratoga Springs coach Jeff Geller said. “We played very well against them the first time, so I was a little concerned that we might come out a little flat, a little bit over confident, but we didn’t and they played well and executed.”
Farr put the ball in on the inside of the left post six minutes in for the early lead before the Garnet Raiders answered inside 30 minutes, popping the ball up and over goalie Alex Henderson.
Farr put the Blue Streaks ahead for good, firing a bullet in from the right side with 23 minutes left before
Ryan Postlethwait delivered the prettiest goal of the day, heading in the third Saratoga goal inside of 18 minutes. Farr scored his hat trick goal with 17 minutes left and handed Saratoga a 4-1 halftime lead.
“I definitely think it was important for us to kind of have
that winning mentality from the get go and kind of put them away early,” Evan Farr said. “As you know the longer we get into the game the more the other team feels like they’re in it and I think that getting those goals relatively early on helped us to gain more confidence as we went on and make sure there was no way that the other team was going to be able to come back.”
With the lead and Geller able to rotate more players in for post-season experience, Saratoga’s Aidan Rice and his supporting cast continued to apply pressure.
Ben Crandall drilled the crossbar with 33 minutes left only to see the ball ricochet directly down in front of the goal line where Rice was at the ready, following the shot with a header for the commanding 5-1 lead.
“I just followed it,” Aidan Rice said. “I’m there to clean up the trash, that’s my job.”
Rice added his second goal of the game, driving through traffic and firing on the goal with 13 minutes left for the sixth goal for the Blue Streaks Thursday.
“Sectionals are a pretty big deal for us, we’ve made it to the semifinals the past three years in a row,” Rice said. “We’re looking to achieve the same thing if not greater and that’s the driving force of our plan.”
The post-season plan always includes win and advance for Geller’s squad.
“They’re hungry, they want to put the ball in the back of the net and they want to make a statement,” Geller said. “We have Bethlehem next round, phenomenal team, we did beat them 3-1 the first time.
“It’s not going to be an easy match, they’re hungry, and so if they have a chance to score we want to take advantage of it. It’s nice to see some of our guys like that working together to put the ball in the back of the net.”
The Blue Streaks will relish their day off on Friday and get after it over the weekend preparing for Bethlehem.
“I’m definitely looking forward to it, I’ll be fired up and ready for the game,” Farr said. “I think Bethlehem is going to be hungry considering the fact that we ended up beating them in the regular season, they’re going to want to get revenge.
“It’s the same kind of thing, you lose a game, you’re season is over, your high school career is over. I don’t think any of us want that to happen, so we’re going to come out with that right mentality and ready to do our best.” @StanHudy on Twitter