SCOTTIES RECLAIM TITLE
Ballston Spa goes back to back in Class B title game with 13-7 win over Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake
EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y. >> Coming into the season, many thought the Ballston Spa lacrosse program couldn’t repeat as Section II Class B champions after graduating a class of 16 seniors a season ago.
Those who thought that, were dead wrong.
“I think we had a lot of, ‘what’s this team going to be,’” said Ballston Spa Head Coach Lucas Snow. “It all came together and progressed and only graduating five or six seniors this year it will be a young team back and hopefully in this same position this year.”
“We lost a great class last year,” said senior Ethan Thomas. “We had a lot of people saying there was no way we were going to do it two times in a row. I guess we used that as fuel and motivation throughout the whole season.”
Ballston Spa’s drive to prove the naysayers wrong helped push them to their second Section II Class B title in as many years with a 13-7 win over Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Friday night at Columbia High School.
“It feels awesome,” said Snow. “This group of kids has
been great all year long. We’ve kind of said it didn’t matter what other people said, we had to believe in each other, and we realized as the year went on we got better and better. The results were what we saw happen today.”
Demetri Yerou scored three goals and assisted on three more in the win for the Scotties. Along with Yerou, Peyton Walsh scored three goals and two assists and Thomas added three of his own. Lucas Bennice scored two goals and assisted on four, with Erik Gottman and Antonio Rosetti each contributing a goal apiece in the win.
“It’s all about coming down and hot and making a move. If the shot is there, you rip it,” said Yerou on his quick release, which was working for him from outside all game.
The Ballston Spa offense rotated the ball well, and add in an effective fast break, the Scotties offense should little flaw in the win.
“I think being unselfish is a key part,” said Thomas on the offense. “Doing that we shared the ball and kept the defenders moving, which was key.”
For Burnt Hills, DJ Townsend led the way scoring wise, scoring three goals in the loss. Caden and Darian LaPietro contributed two goals as well, with Ty McHerron adding an assist.
Ballston Spa, who was the first seed in the tournament after completing a 14-4 regular season, jumped out to the early 4-1 in the first quarter. Ballston Spa goals were coming from midrange and further, a show of power behind their shots.
After the second quarter and entering halftime at Columbia High School, it was becoming apparent that the Burnt HillsBallston Lake defense needed to change its clear. Struggling to generate affective clears and even getting a failure to advance call early in the quarter was a sign of that.
“It’s one of the things we pride ourselves on,” said Snow. “Assistant Coach Ohsman, that’s his area of expertise. Our ride challenges other teams. They did a great job at the end of the fourth quarter of breaking it and we had to switch it out to something else, but that’s something we’ve done a great job of.”
One thing Snow looked for his team to do in the second half was to limit their flags, which began to accumulate in the first half.
“At the beginning of the game we took a few penalties and they got a few man up goals,” said Snow. “The thing about penalties is you worry about health, but at the end of the day it worked out, and I’m proud of these guys for that.”
Ballston Spa continued the scoring entering the third quarter and pushed the score to 11-6 before the end of the quarter. It was becoming clear that Burnt Hills needed to make a change.
Alongside the masterful ride of the Ballston Spa defense, sophomore goalie Gregg Dort Jr. made acrobatic saves throughout the game to keep the Scotties in it. Dort Jr. also led an aggressive clear and proved to stand up to the challenge of Burnt Hills’ final push.
“It absolutely helps,” said Snow on Dort Jr. ability to make important saves and lead the clear from the backend.
“That second quarter was rough but that first quarter I came out really strong,” said Dort Jr. “I think it was mostly my defense giving me those shots. I had the best looks so I think it was mostly the defense.”
Dort Jr. finished with 13 saves.
On the other side of the field, Chris Serafini made countless saves for the Spartans, finishing with 17 on the night.
In the fourth quarter, Ballston Spa outscored Burnt Hills 2-1 in a quarter that was a lot of clock management, and a lot of keep-a-way.
Ballston Spa will move on to represent Section II in the State tournament at the Class B level. With youth and excitement on their side, not many people will be doubting them again.