Lescault’s six goals help Burnt Hills avert Averill Park comeback
BURNT HILLS, NY » The Burnt Hills girl’s lacrosse team jumped out to a big lead on Tuesday evening, but Averill Park had no intentions of getting blown out, as they were able to crawl back into the game late.
“That was really big for us today,” MK Lescault said of Burnt Hills’ 8-0 start. “We were pumped coming in, coming off our overtime win against Bethlehem, we wanted to come in and win big. We came out strong, but then we got a little lazy and we had to come back.”
The final score favored Burnt Hills, 17-11, but that wasn’t before Averill Park cut their deficit to three goals late in the second half.
It was MK Lescault, Grace Tullock and Allie Connally that led Burnt Hills to their big lead to open the game. In their 8-0 opening stretch, Lescault, a sophomore captain, scored first. Grace Tullock, a freshman, followed with two consecutive goals. Allie Connally, a senior captain, scored Burnt Hills’ fourth goal. Lescault put in the next two, then Connally and Tullock scored one more each, giving the Spartans an 8-0 lead.
From that point on, the War
riors were a different team. Gianna Geraci got Averill Park on the board and Julia Foster put in the next two for the Warriors. Julia Gelder added one more, as the Warriors went into the half trailing Burnt Hills 11-4.
Isabella Tatro, Lescault and Carly Szczepaniak scored the remaining three goals for Burnt Hills in the first half.
The Warriors and Spartans went back and forth, trading jabs to begin the second half, with Gelder (AP), Connally (BH), Foster (AP), Connally (BH), Sophia Stern (AP), Gelder (AP), and Lescault (BH) scoring in that order, making the score 14-8 in favor of Burnt Hills. Then Averill Park scored three in a row, two by Gelder and one by Mia Tessitore to make it 14-11.
“We started slacking a little bit since we had gone up by so much and credit to them, they didn’t give up and they started to get back in it,” Lescault said. “We had to step it up, start playing tighter defense, communicating more and winning the draws, which I think is really crucial. We were up by so much and we really didn’t want to give it up.”
That run by the Warriors prompted the Spartans to respond with three consecutive goals of their own, with one each from Connally, Ella Blesi and Lescault.
“It’s definitely communication and defense that are the keys to make sure we’re closing out games,” Lescault added. “Winning draws and making sure we’re connecting on our passes.”
Overall, Lescault totaled six goals in the game and Connally had five goals and an assist. Tullock had three goals, while Szczepaniak, Blesi and Tatro each had one.
For Averill Park, Gelder led with five goals, Foster had three goals and two assists, and Tessitor, Stern, and Geraci each had one.
“We were really passing the ball around well and that made it easier to get clearer lanes,” Lescault said on her big game. “Syd’s screens helped me a lot, but once we started communicating better, that’s when we really started to click today.”