Spartans bounce back big
BH-BL rebounds from opening loss with lopsided win
BURNT HILLS — There were piles of snow lining the outskirts of the playing surface of Centennial Field on Friday morning. The turf field was devoid of moisture, so the Burnt Hills-ballston Lake girls’ lacrosse team proceeded to unleash an avalanche of goals upon Averill Park.
The Spartans scored 12 times from six different sources in the first half and cruised to a 16-2 victory in the Suburban Council opener for both schools.
Burnt Hills-ballston Lake opened its 2024 schedule last week with a 14-4 loss against Queensbury, a squad that also defeated BH-BL 9-7 in the 2023 Section II Class C final.
“It was definitely a learning experience. It taught us a lot,” BH-BL senior attack Caroline Kogut said. “It sucks to lose by 10 in general, but they also ended our season last year.”
“Queensbury knocked us down and now we can build back up,” Burnt Hills-ballston Lake coach Shawn Kline said. “We’re a young group, so it is going to take time. That is what I am trying to tell them, that this is not a sprint but a marathon. We are working towards the end of the year.”
Among the graduation departures from the 2023 roster for the Spartans included prolific scorers MK Lescault ( Johns Hopkins) and Ella Blesi (Syracuse), a pair of midfielders who combined to deliver 127 goals and 50 assists in their final scholastic season together.
The Spartans (1-1 overall, 1-0 Suburban Council) spread the wealth scoring-wise Friday as senior attack Caroline Kogut, freshman attack Maggie Lescault and eighth grade attack Rylie Kline all scored three goals. Chloe Kniskern, Grace Kogut and Julia Frederick each
added two goals. BH-BL led 4-0 after one quarter and 12-0 at halftime.
“I love to see how much we improved from last game to this one. We are definitely getting better,” Caroline Kogut said. “We are completely different from last year and every day we are getting better.”
The Spartans managed to control things from the outset as Grace Kogut proved stellar with draw control. BH-BL utilized two goals in the first quarter from Lescault and one each by Kline and Caroline Kogut. In the second quarter, the Spartans stretched the advantage to 8-0 in the first three minutes as Caroline Kogut scored twice to go along with goals by Kniskern and Lescault.
“It is a completely different team and everything we do is different,” said Caroline Kogut, who talked about the team working on their stick skills since the opener. “It was good to have a game like that (against Queensbury) to show us the things we need to work on.”
Although Averill Park (0-1, 0-1) did not generate a ton of shots upon BH-BL goalie Isabella Yecies. The freshman managed to go 4-for-4 on saves against free position shot attempts made by Natalie Perrotta, Liz Hansen, Ciara Pogue and Abby Houser.
“She stepped up today,” Kogut said of Yecies. “She was injured, so it was a nice way for her to return.”
“She just got healthy, so that was good for her,” Shawn Kline said. “Those we’re good saves. We’ll take it.”
The Spartans increased their advantage to 13-0 on Frederick’s second tally of the day. Averill Park finally broke through late in the quarter with goals from Houser and Hannah Daly.
BH-BL will resume its Suburban Council schedule next week with contests against Columbia and Ballston Spa. This season’s roster has just four seniors among 19 players and Shawn Kline says having a veteran star such as Caroline Kogut, who also served as a major leader on the school’s highly successful field hockey squad, is a huge benefit to him and the team.
“She does a great job,” BH-BL’S coach said. “She is vocal and she is doing a great job for us.”