Burnt Hills beats South Glens Falls
BURNT HILLS, N.Y. » College basketball coaching legend John Wooden is credited with the quote “Sports do not build character, they reveal it.” Besides being one of the greatest college coaches of all times he could have been a visionary, knowing the path that the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake soccer teams take each year preparing for sectionals.
The Spartans (6-10-1) had to learn how to embrace its annual Suburban Council schedule as one of the smallest sized schools in the league as a learning experi-
ence for the Class A playoffs and facing stiff, but equally sized competition.
It also helps when they execute their coach’s game plan and put a goal on the board within the first 10 minutes of play — or close to it.
Burnt Hills junior midfielder Mollie Boone sent a laser from the Centennial Field surface for a 30yard strike 10 minutes, 15 seconds. The hosts added two more to drop No. 5 seeded South Glens Falls 3-0 Thursday afternoon.
“We’ve been saying all season ‘The first 10 minutes, the first 10 minutes,’ and we missed it by 15 seconds,” Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Coach Brian Bold said. “That final third piece, it could have been 5-0 in the first 15 minutes and those kind of things the deeper and deeper you go in the post-season the quality of teams if you don’t finish chances they come back to haunt you.
“We’ll talk about that tomorrow, let them enjoy today.”
Mollie Boone heeded her coach’s direction and tried to add a few more Thursday.
“I just asked for it at my feet and I just kept my composure and I hit it,” Boone said. “I just turned and ripped it. I took a deep breath and said ‘I have to get this one in,’”
A few moments later, Boone was on the doorstep, just a few feet in front of the goal line and lifted the ball up and over the goal.
“It’s frustrating, you have to put those away, but we kept it up.”
The Spartans are comfortable with frustration, suffering a six-goal shutout at the hands of Shenendehowa and a five-goal shutout loss to Shaker during the regular season that stood out in their minds.
“Those stand out on the schedule, but to me we lost seven games either 1-0 or 2-1, three of them being in overtime,” Bold said. “Those are the games that prepared us for today.”
After Boone converted her 30-yard strike, sophomore forward Raia James tallied her own goal from the front line with under three minutes to go before freshman midfielder Kaitlyn Ramos scored the final goal for the Spartans.
“As we met before the game we all talked about how we need to stay composed, take a breath, play to feet, make smart passes, work hard because as soon as one person isn’t working hard it’s like a chain reaction and it goes through so many people on the team, but on the other side, if one person is working their tail off, then it really shows and everyone can rally behind them,” Burnt Hills senior goalkeeper Anna Scott said.
With her final game at Centennial Field complete she embraced her coaches message about the post-season for his players.
“(Coach) Bold has put the emphasis that we’re not guaranteed any more games and every time we step onto that field it could be our last so we need to treat it like it’s going to be our last,” Scott said. “There can’t be any ‘What ifs, what if I could have gone harder to that ball, or what if I had run faster?’ Those what ifs can turn into regrets that we can’t have on the team.”
The what ifs were reserved for the Bulldogs.
“We couldn’t finish tonight,” South Glens Falls coach Steve Philo said. “At the end of the first it was wide, wide and then right at her (Anna Scott, goalie). If we score there we’re right in it.”
The Spartans will face rival Scotia-Glenville, the No. 1 seed in Class A 7 p.m. Monday night at Stillwater High School in the semifinal match-up.
The growing pains from the regular season will have to pay off again for Burnt Hills.
“In the beginning of the year we opened up with Scotia and we lost in overtime and that was our motivation because we have always had a rivalry,” Scott said. “Losing that, we know we’re playing in the Suburban Council and we can only get better.