BURNT HILLS — Next up, the Niskayuna girls’ lacrosse team gets the rematch it craves.
A year after dropping a double-overtime decision against Section I’s Yorktown in a Class B regional championship game, the Silver Warriors throttled Section IX’s Warwick 18-4 in sub-regional action Wednesday to earn another chance to topple Yorktown.
“That game, it hurt,” Niskayuna sophomore Annabelle Conover said of last year’s 10-9 season-ending defeat. “We definitely don’t want it to come out again the way it did last year.”
“We’re excited to try to get redemption,” Niskayuna senior Erin Doyle said.
Doyle registered five goals and an assist in Wednesday’s win at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School, while Conover and classmate Sydney McPartlon each scored three goals.
McPartlon also had three assists and Conover had two, while both junior Claudia Barbera and sophomore Ava Schroeder added two goals.
Warwick senior Maggee Sheridan had three goals.
Niskayuna — which topped Queensbury last week in the Section II final — moved to 13-6 on the season with the blowout win.
“We came out focused,” Niskayuna head coach Jason Bach said. “We wanted to play with some urgency right from the rip.”
Niskayuna scored the game’s first nine goals, led 14-2 at halftime and carried at least a dozen-goal lead for the entire second half. The contest used a running clock for the final 34-plus minutes.
“Our focus really was on playing as a team and making sure everything is working good for Saturday,” Conover said.
Niskayuna is playing in the state tournament for the third consecutive season, but has not won a regional championship since 2008. Last year’s game against Yorktown almost saw Niskayuna snap that streak, as the Silver Warriors were tied or ahead for all but 31 seconds in regulation.
“Possession,” McPartlon said is the key for Niskayuna this time against Yorktown. “We need to hold it for as long as we can, work as hard as we can.”
“We can’t get into a track meet with Yorktown,” Bach said.
Niskayuna plays Yorktown 10 a.m. Saturday at Suffern Middle School. While the Silver Warriors are seeking their first regional championship in nearly a decade, Yorktown was a state finalist in 2016.
“Yorktown is a giant,” Bach said. “They’re going to be very tough to beat.”
GUILDERLAND ADVANCES
Her team up a bunch a little more than midway through the second half of the Class A sub-regional game against Kingston, Guilderland junior Kadi Futia’s pursuit of a loose ball ended with her colliding — hard — with the pop-up tent covering the scorers’ table.
“That tent’s a lot sturdier than it looks,” Futia said. “I thought it was coming down on top of me.”
The tent didn’t budge and Futia was fine, too. After a few minutes on the sideline, Futia returned to action to help Guilderland close out its 15-8 win against a Section IX foe.
“You can’t break me that easily I guess,” Futia said with a laugh.
Futia scored two of her game-high four goals after taking her spill. She added an assist in the win, while senior Kerry Gerety, senior Hayley Kmack and sophomore Amanda Nieman each had three goals. Gerety added two assists.
Guilderland scored the game’s first six goals and appeared ready to cruise into halftime with a commanding lead. Kingston, though, put together a great minute late in the first half to make things interesting. Starting with Kingston junior Analiese Amato’s score with 1:59 left in the first half, Kingston scored three goals in a span of 54 seconds to cut Guilderland’s lead in half.
But Futia swung momentum back her team’s way before halftime, scoring with 17.4 seconds left in the first half to send Guilderland into halftime up 7-3. Goals from sophomore Jamie Golderman and Gerety within the first three minutes of the second half followed for Guilderland, which led by at least five for the final 23:07 of play.
“We just wanted to play as a team today and make sure we were backing everyone up,” Futia said.
Guilderland improved to 15-3 with the win, while Kingston finished at 15-4.
Guilderland next plays 4 p.m. Saturday against Section I’s North Rockland at Suffern Middle School.
CLASS B
NISKAYUNA 18, WARWICK 4
Warwick 2 2 — 4
Niskayuna 14 4 — 18
Warwick scoring: Maggee Sheridan 3-0, Brogan Dineen 0-1, Kayla Datys 1-0, Natalie Daigle 0-1, Erin Flannery 0-1. Niskayuna scoring: Erin Doyle 5-1, Hannah Aronowitz 1-0, Tori Pantalone 1-0, Sydney McPartlon 3-3, Claudia Barbera 2-2, Peyton Reihs 1-1, Ava Schroeder 2-1, Annabelle Conover 3-2.
Goalies: Warwick, Allie Kidney, 4 saves; Jacqueline Finkel, 5 saves. Niskayuna, Mary Tiscione, 2 saves; Marina Azab, 5 saves.
CLASS A
GUILDERLAND 15, KINGSTON 8
Kingston 3 5 — 8
Guilderland 7 8 — 15
Kingston scoring: Analiese Amato 2-0, Cameron Letus 1-0, Kendal Parker 2-1, Juliana Sickler 2-0, Grace Gavis 1-1, Makenna Sepesi 0-1. Guilderland scoring: Hayley Kmack 3-0, Amanda Nieman 3-0, Kerry Gerety 3-2, Kadi Futia 4-1, Jamie Golderman 1-0, Shea Thomson 1-1.
Goalies: Kingston, Grace Perry, 11 saves. Guilderland, Alexa DiCaprio, 8 saves.
Tuesday
CLASS C
BURNT HILLS-BALLSTON LAKE 10, GOSHEN 9
Goshen 4 5 — 9
BH-BL 6 4 — 10
Goshen scoring: Fellenzer 1-1, Miller 2-0, Calzaretta 1-0, Politoski 0-1, Weishoff 2-0, Kurek 2-0. BH-BL scoring: Taylor Safford 2-2, Lauren Hopsicker 3-0, Alex Safford 1-0, Allie Connally 1-0, Christina Pedone 3-0, Kayla Seeley 0-1.
Goalkeepers: Goshen, Winship, 9 saves. BH-BL, Abbie McHerron, 12 saves.
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