Short-handed Scotties fall in A final

COLONIE, N.Y. >> It’s hard to win a sectional title. It takes hard work, a precise game plan, execution and typically a full roster.

Ballston Spa almost had it all – with the exception of a full roster as illness took out three players for Monday night’s Section 2 Class A final against Queensbury and the Spartans took advantage to capture the championship final 4-0 at Colonie High School.

The three-straight Class A champs pressured the Scotties from the opening whistle, limiting Ballston Spa to a single shot during the opening 10 minutes and just five shots in the first half.

“We’ve been pretty good about getting out of the gate early and getting going,” Queensbury Coach Peter Crotty said. “I think that’s what we wanted to do here. I think after that first 10 minutes we kind of went flat a little bit, they put some pressure on us with

the counter attack and trying to play over the top. They were good with the target players.

“We wanted to establish that we’ve good a pretty good front line and we wanted to establish that early if we could, if we can get on the board first.”

That open score came when Teddy Borgos converted a penalty kick midway through the first half, sending the free opportunity into the right side of the net for the 1-0 lead.

Queensbury opened the second with the same level of pressure

“We wanted to be a little bit more organized defensively because we were too spread out, we were giving them service a little bit too easily in there which was creating danger,” Crotty said. “Again, play together as an offense and a defense. If we could get an early one again, we had a couple good chances, Drew (Crawford) hit the post and one or two others.”

That forced Ballston Spa Coach Garry Preece to take chances offensively, looking to get on the board.

“I just overloaded the top so I knew it’s either score or get scored against, it didn’t matter at that point. 20 minutes left.

“Four people up top and went three in the back and that’s when they scored two more, which doesn’t really matter. I thought we played well and held our own and we did well for being short some players.”

Junior Ian DeFilippis and sophomore Ethan Cook were unavailable due to the flu, greatly impacting the Scotties game day plan.

“(DeFilippis) he’s the best defender I have, he’s shut down all the top players at every game we’ve had along the way at every sectional game,” Preece said. “That really hurt us a lot, but I’m not making excuses, we still played hard and we had opportunities, we just didn’t finish. If we finished I think it would be a closer game.”

Ballston Spa won its first and only Section 2 title in 2015, a Class AA co-champion plaque with Shaker High, advancing to regional on penalty kicks. This year, the Scotties were awarded the Capital Region’s version of soccer’s ‘Bracket of Death’ facing Troy High at home and then traveling to Averill Park before defeating Albany Academy in the semifinal. Paired up with two consecutive Suburban Council teams early on tested Ballston Spa’s mettle on its way to the Class A final.

“It just shows how hard the kids worked to realize that they had to go through some tough opponents to get here and they deserved to get here,” Preece said. “They worked hard and they played well against those other opponents. I thought we played well against Queensbury; we just didn’t have good breaks.”