Fayetteville-Manlius may be a shell of the girls lacrosse team that went to three straight state championships, but that doesn’t lessen the impact of what Guilderland did against the Hornets Saturday night.
Bridget Daley and Danielle Tetreault each scored free position goals in the final five minutes to give the Lady Dutch a 9-8 victory over F-M at the University at Albany’s Fallon Field.
We’ve got our hands full with our own league, but to get this win boosts our confidence, said Guilderland coach Gary Chatnik.
`It was a great battle,` said F-M coach Adair Milmoe. `It was a great fight right to the last whistle. They were the better team by one possession.`
It was Guilderland’s second game and F-M’s first game, and the difference was noticeable. When crunch time came in the final five minutes of a closely-contested match, the Lady Dutch executed both offensively and defensively, while the Hornets had a hard time getting the ball out of Guilderland’s sticks.
`The team coached themselves tonight,` said Chatnik. `Everyone who got on the field did a great job.`
F-M overcame a two-goal deficit midway through the second half. Allie Primo started the rally with a shot that appeared to glance off Guilderland goaltender Jen Kaye’s stick into the net to make the score 7-6. Jennifer Devaney then bounced a shot off the turf past Kaye to tie the game at 7 with 8:15 left.
Lindsey Crawford put the Hornets ahead for the first time since early in the first half with a free position goal, but the lead was short lived. An F-M player was given a yellow card less than a minute later, which gave Guilderland a free position shot and a man advantage for three minutes.
`The girls needed to use a little more smarts at that point,` said Milmoe. `We were up one with five minutes left, and we needed to play smart.`
Daley took advantage of the free position by scoring her lone goal of the game to tie the match at 8. Then after a long Lady Dutch possession, Tetreault was fouled heading toward the goal. The senior notched her third goal of the game on the free position to put Guilderland ahead again with 1:50 left.
`We kept answering,` said Chatnik. `They’d score a goal, and we answered every time.`
The Lady Dutch made certain that this lead stood. They won the ensuing draw and held on to the ball for nearly 90 seconds before F-M forced a turnover. The Hornets made a push, but a pass sailed out of bounds with 2.7 seconds left to end the threat.
`Our defense played excellent,` said Chatnik. `The defense was all over the place at times, and we threw the ball away a few times, which put pressure on our defense. But they did a great job of holding them down.`
Amanda Best and Chelsea Newman each contributed a goal and an assist in support of Tetreault’s hat trick for Guilderland, which improved its record to 2-0. Crawford had three goals for F-M, which only has two starters back from last year’s state finalist squad.
`We’re pretty much starting over again, so actually I’m happy with our performance,` said Milmoe.“