Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake rolls past Amsterdam in Section II Class A girls' soccer tournament

PHOTOGRAPHER: Erica Miller

Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake’s Cassidy Robleno celebrates the team’s first goal with teammates against Amsterdam during Friday’s Section II Class A girls’ soccer tournament at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School.

BURNT HILLS — The victory was already in hand when junior varsity call-up Ellie Smith tacked on Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake’s final goal late in Friday’s Section II Class A soccer quarterfinal with Amsterdam.

“Great start to the sectionals,” Burnt Hills coach Marisah Boucher said after her teams’ 8-0 win at Centennial Field. ‘It was a team effort. Everybody worked hard together. Everybody made it happen.”

The Spartans shared the ball, shared the scoring load, and collectively turned back the few good offensive chances the Rams mustered to set up a tournament semifinal rematch with Queensbury.

Sophomore Alana Yahoudy and junior Sam Torres scored two goals apiece, with Torres’ getting her second goal with five seconds left to cap a 6-0 first-half surge.

Images: Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake girls’ soccer takes on Amsterdam Friday (15 photos)

Junior Cassidy Robleno began the decisive first-half outburst on a goal with just over two minutes elapsed in the contest.

“Our energy level was already up when we scored,” said Torres, who excels in soccer as well as track. “When we got that first goal it went even higher. We were in it to win it. It was, ‘Let’s keep pushing.’”

Burnt Hills (No. 3 seed, 8-7-2) did that while scoring in a variety of ways, including a breakaway goal by senior MK Lescault that made it 2-0, and another goal by Yahoudy on a corner kick play soon after that extended the Spartans advantage to 3-0.

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Torres sandwiched her two goals around another by sophomore Abby Malagisi inside the last five minutes of the first half.

“Yesterday in practice, I asked the girls what they wanted to do in their sectional opener, and all of the answers had a similar idea,” Boucher said. “They wanted to show all of the hard work they put in over the last six weeks and make it come together. The girls did the job, and they had fun doing it.”

“We wanted to show what we’ve got,” Torres added. “We wanted to connect with our passes and keep shooting. We wanted to show what we have.”

Amsterdam (No. 6 seed, 11-4-2) had a good idea, but slowing the Spartans was a different thing altogether.

“We watched film on them,” Amsterdam coach Jessica Verrigni said. “We knew who to pay attention to. Our assignments were not handled today.”

Amsterdam goalie Carolyn Sculco made 13 saves, including the game’s best stop when the sophomore dove to deny Torres on a penalty kick early in the second half.

Sculco couldn’t stop a drive by Yahoudy moments later, though, nor one by Smith, a sophomore, later on.

Sophomore defender Catherine Groth was a standout at the other end for Burnt Hill, playing a key stopping and clearing role in front of juniors Estella Mackey (two saves) and Ellie Adone (two saves) and freshman JV call-up Teagan Keane (0 saves)..

“She [Groth] played a very good game,” Boucher said. “She is strong and smart. A good decision maker. She has been solid all year for us.”

Burnt Hills will play Queensbury (No. 2 seed, 15-2) Monday at 5 p.m. at Mechanicville in a semifinal game. Queensbury beat Burnt Hills last year in the semifinal round 4-3 and went on to claim its first Class A title with a 2-1 triumph over Averill Park.

“It’s always a tough road, but we know what we have to do to get there [championship game],” Boucher said. “We have to have a consistent 80 minutes of hard work and keep the intensity high.”

Torres scored two goals in that loss to Queensbury last season after her team fell behind 4-1.

“We scrimmaged Queensbury early in the season,” Torres said. “We’re very ready for that.”

Amsterdam enjoyed a turnaround season with its double-digit victory total and upper-tier finish among the Foothills Council teams.

Images: Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake girls’ soccer takes on Amsterdam Friday (15 photos)

“We were under .500 last year,” Verrigni said. “Although we were hoping this was the year we went a little further, we had a great year together. The girls worked hard and got better passing, moving, finishing and playing defense.”

Halftime: Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake led 6-0. Amsterdam scoring: None. Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake scoring: Robleno 1-0, Lescault 1-0, Yahoudy 2-0, Torres 2-0, Malagisi 1-0, Smith 1-0. Goalies: Amsterdam, Sculco, 13 saves. Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, Mackey, 2 saves; Adone, 2 saves; Keane, 0 saves.