La Salle advances to face Saratoga

TROY, N.Y. » At the end of every practice, coach Matt Michaud has his La Salle team practice penalty kicks. They aren’t even a part of the game until the schedule hits the postseason. But as the Cadets learned on Thursday, they can make a difference in whose season ends.

All that practice paid off against Ballston Spa in the opening round of the Class AA Section II playoffs. The Cadets managed a 1-1 tie against BSpa, but advanced, 3-0, on penalty kicks after 110 minutes.

“Just knowing that we practice them,” said forward John Gordon. “Just getting the technique down, it’s huge. It’s huge.”

No. 8 La Salle moves on to play at No. 1 seed Saratoga Springs in

a 1 p.m. game Saturday afternoon.

Gordon scored the one goal for LSI in the first half to make it 1-0. Jeremy Obrecht scored the goal for Ballston Spa in the second half. It came down to penalty kicks, and LSI won it clearly and convincingly. It was only the fourth time that the Cadets have advanced in the Section II playoffs.

“Every year, for us, it’s about showing that we can hang,” Michaud said. “That we’re not an easy out. This is huge for our program. To be able to host in the first place...And to be able to hang. We took the lead. We took some of their best shots.”

Colton Jaquith was in goal for the Cadets. He came out of it midway through the second half. He got his hands on the ball and Michaud thought they should have stopped the play. Instead, he was caught in no-man’s land and Obrecht scored an easy equalizer with 27 minutes left to play.

The two teams remained deadlocked for the next hour of play. By the end, they were exhausted and out of breath. Many were sitting on the field before the penalty kicks started.

But once they did, Jaquith was the man in the goal. He stopped the first two shots he saw, saying that he guessed right. The third sailed over the goal and in that moment La Salle won.

Everyone who had been in the student section for the three hour game rushed onto the field. They circled around the team which had already gathered into their own circle. Obrecht was being consoled by his teammates as he wept.

“I know how to strategize on that,” Jaquith said. “The strategy doesn’t always work. But it’s really a game of guessing and I just guessed right.”

La Salle will next play against Saratoga Springs. Playing in the Colonial Council, it’s tough for the Cadets to measure the success they had against the best in Section II. The first test, they passed, eventually, after a long and drawn out battle. The next one on Saturday will be even tougher.

“We play for fun. We play for our family,” Michaud said. “We play for each other. We play for the Cadets that we represent. The Cadets that came before us. The teams that came before us. We really dig deep down into our why. We can take somebody’s best shot, but we can dig deep.”