When Mike Lavelle kicked a 39-yard field goal early in the second quarter, the Guilderland football team had a 9-6 lead on Ballston Spa.
That was the moment Ballston Spa turned on the jets.
The Scotties (8-1) scored the final 36 points of the game to defeat the Dutchmen 42-9 in last Friday’s Section II Class AA semifinal game in Ballston Spa.
We weathered an early storm, said Ballston Spa coach John Bowen. `They came out with a great game plan early on, and we had to weather it.`
`Defensively, we knew they would be a tough offense to stop,` said Guilderland coach Dan Penna. `We had a couple of kids playing different positions because of injuries, but that’s no excuse. They just outplayed us.`
Ballston Spa quarterback Mark Seager completed two passes for 47 yards, but he didn’t need to. He created enough havoc with his feet as he rushed for 146 yards including a 50-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter to put the Scotties in total control.
Seager wasn’t the only one running all over the place for Ballston Spa. Nick Tubolino carried the ball six times for 61 yards and a pair of touchdowns, Matt Clark contributed two scoring runs and Alex Nicol added 47 rushing yards and a touchdown as the Scotties gained more than 300 yards on the ground.
`That’s what this is all about. If you want to try to stop one guy, someone else is going to beat you,` said Bowen.
Meanwhile, Guilderland’s offense had a hard time getting anything going after taking its 9-6 lead. Though the Dutchmen (4-5) got into Ballston Spa territory several times, turnovers and penalties stalled their drives.
`I credit our kids so much because they knew we didn’t have much depth because we were missing some players, and they kept playing hard,` said Penna.
Things looked good for Guilderland early on when quarterback Ryan Smith connected with Matt Ward on a 15-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter. But Ballston Spa responded with a scoring drive of its own ` capped by Clark’s 4-yard touchdown run ` to tie the game at 6.
Following Lavelle’s field goal early in the second quarter, Ballston Spa took the lead on Nicol’s 16-yard touchdown run. Matt Belghey added the extra point to give the Scotties a 13-9 advantage.
Guilderland’s defense couldn’t shut down Ballston Spa’s running attack after that. Tubolino scored on a 4-yard run late in the second quarter, and Seager broke free for his long scoring scamper in the third quarter to give the Scotties a 27-9 lead. Then, Clark capped another Ballston Spa drive with a 5-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter to make the score 34-9.
The exclamation point came in the fourth quarter. Tubolino scored on a 9-yard run, and Seager added a two-point conversion on a fake extra point to give Ballston Spa its final margin of victory.
Ballston Spa advances to Friday’s Class AA final against Route 50 neighbor Saratoga Springs, which shut out Schenectady 32-0 in last weekend’s other Sectional semifinal.
`It’s a special thing to be a part of,` said Bowen. `I hope this continues through next week.“