Shaker defeats Saratoga Springs, wins Class AA boys' soccer championship

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

Shaker's Lesedi Sekhobo heads the ball next to teammate Waqas Hagali and Saratoga Springs' Evan Hallett at the Section II Class AA Boys' Soccer Championship at Colonie High School Tuesday.

COLONIE — Shortly after the awards ceremony Tuesday night, officials at Colonie High School turned off a couple of sets of lights. Then another.

It didn’t seem to chase the Shaker boys’ soccer team players or their fans to the parking lots.

Surely, a team that found a way to beat Saratoga Springs could find its way to a bus in the dark.

Images: Saratoga Springs boys’ soccer takes on Shaker for title (7 photos)

In a marvelous Class AA final befitting both teams’ top-10 state rankings, second-seeded Shaker edged the top-seeded Blue Streaks 4-3 in overtime to earn its first Section II boys’ soccer title.

Shaker (15-1-2) trailed 1-0 briefly before tying it, went ahead 3-1 with 13:13 left in regulation and found itself tied by the end of regulation. Then, 1:43 into the sudden-death overtime, forward Brendan Degan’s run through the Saratoga Springs defense resulted in him being tripped inside the box.

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Senior midfielder Ben Halek took the penalty kick and booted it high into the net to give Shaker the victory.

“Ben Halek hasn’t scored ever until, I believe, a couple games ago,” Shaker coach Dan Fountain said. “And he’s such a good player, and we kept telling him, ‘Ben, you’re just saving them all up.’ And I believe he has scored in all three sectional games, and he scored in the last regular-season game. So he went from no goals to he’s on a four-game scoring streak. And that is what you look for in your senior leader in big games.”

“It feels great to come out on top tonight,” Halek said. “I knew it was going to go in. You just have to have confidence on those types of shots. I just needed to hit it as hard as possible past the ‘keeper.”

The loss was the first of the season for Saratoga Springs (15-1-1), who got a hat trick from junior center forward Ryan Farr in defeat.

Farr struck first with 28:47 left in the first half when he made a great individual play to get by two defenders and slide the ball into the far side.

Shaker tied it 44 seconds later on a goal from Lesedi Sekhobo. The score stayed that way until halftime, but the Blue Bison clearly had the better half, possessing the ball more and frustrating the Blue Streaks’ tries to get the dangerous Farr free.

Shaker took a 2-1 lead with 22:06 left when Nick Pepe chipped the ball into the box and Kofi Sarfoh headed it in to the far side. The Blue Bison made it 3-1 with 13:13 left Sarfoh’s long ball got to Degan, who put a shot in off Saratoga Springs goalkeeper Ben Van Valkenburg.

Fountain kept yelling to his team the game wasn’t over, and he proved prophetic. Farr headed in Lucas Varghese’s cross with 8:47 left. Next, he gathered Vincent Devito’s pass with a man right on his back, turned quickly and fired a left-footer into the net with 2:14 left to tie the game at 3.

“Ryan Farr is unbelievable,” Fountain said. “I believe most of the game we had him triple-teamed, and he was still causing us fits and scoring a bunch of goals. Just an unbelievable player. The team uses him well.”

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“He’s been amazing all season,” Saratoga Springs coach Jeff Geller said of Farr. “Kind of took the team on his shoulders there and got us those goals. The team was definitely feeding off his energy.”

Saratoga Springs beat Shaker 1-0 during their regular-season meeting on Oct. 6. Geller said he wasn’t totally surprised that this game was high-scoring.

“I feel the [grass] surface was a little difficult for us,” Geller said. “We play on turf most of the year. Shaker’s got a lot of fast, dangerous players. They’re playing a lot of long balls over the top, which we’re not accustomed to dealing with, and we were not really able to string together the types of passes we’re accustomed to, which took us out of our game.”

Fountain is so happy for his team, which he said showed resilience all season.

“Grit, grit, grit,” he said of his players. “We’ve been down multiple times – against Albany we gave up the lead. Against Shen we were down … They’ve always just kept playing.

Images: Saratoga Springs boys’ soccer takes on Shaker for title (7 photos)

“When you’re able to win and you see all the hard work come through, it just teaches them such a good lesson,” he added. “This is one they’re going to show up at their 50th reunion and point at the banner in the gym, showing their grandkids, ‘That was when I played.’ ”

Halftime score: Shaker 1, Saratoga Springs 1. Shaker scoring: Sarfoh 1-1, Sekhobo 1-0, Degan 1-0, Halek 1-0. Saratoga Springs scoring: Farr 3-0, Eldridge 0-1, Varghese 0-1, Devito 0-1. Goalies: Shaker, Harriman, 3 saves. Saratoga Springs, Van Valkenburg, 5 saves.

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