Everything was going well for the Guilderland girls lacrosse team until it crossed the border into Massachusetts.
The Lady Dutch (6-1) turned in what coach Gary Chatnik called their worst per-formance of the season in a 13-10 loss to Long Meadow Saturday.
“We played terrible,” said Chatnik. “We came off three big wins in three big (Suburban Council) games last week, and we were just flat.”
Long Meadow entered Saturday’s game as the top-ranked team in Massachusetts, but that fact didn’t matter in Chatnik’s assessment of the contest.
“We didn’t have any energy,” said Chatnik.
Chatnik was more pleased with how Guilderland played in last Thursday’s 14-11 Suburban Council victory over Shaker in Latham. The Lady Dutch scored the final four goals of the first half to take a 9-7 lead, and they fended off several second-half challenges by the Blue Bison (5-1) to take sole possession of first place.
“The defense played terrific, and the offense played very well,” said Chatnik. “They possessed the ball very well.”
Guilderland’s power play turned in a strong performance against Shaker. The Lady Dutch scored several goals during a pair of two-minute stretches when the Blue Bison were down a player due to yellow cards.
“We were able to play aggressively (for those four minutes of power play time) and take advantage of it,” said Chatnik.
Morgan Hardt led Guilderland’s attack against Shaker with five goals. Rebecca Golderman contributed a hat trick, and Ali Cardinal tallied twice.
Julia Lennon had five goals for Shaker.
Guilderland returned to Suburban Council action Monday by playing Colonie.
“We’ve got a lot of games to go,” said Chatnik. “We’re at the midpoint of the season, and now we’ve got to put things in a different gear.”