Saratoga Springs girls' lacrosse captures Class A title over Shaker

Lacrosse team celebrates title with pose — PHOTOGRAPHER: Stan Hudy

Saratoga Springs girls' lacrosse coach Jennifer Furze holds up the Section 2 Class A championship plaque among her players after defeating Shaker, 8-5, Wednesday at Schuylervile High School.

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SCHUYLERVILLE — Saratoga Springs girls’ lacrosse coach Jennifer Furze did her best to jump for joy and celebrate the Blue Streaks’ Section 2 Class A championship win over Shaker Wednesday night at Schuylerville, but she did the next best thing, she held up the championship plaque as tight as she could.

A torn calf muscle kept her from jumping around, but you wouldn’t know it from the smile on her face as Saratoga defeated Shaker 8-5 to claim its first Class A title in five years.

“I’ve been coaching some of these kids since third grade, my daughter [Emma] is on the team and so she’s kind of come up through the ranks with all of them,” Furze said. “So we’ve grown up together and there’s a lot of younger girls who are just equal contributors that were hungry for it.”

After a goal-for-goal start to the first half, Saratoga was able to control the tempo and the time of possession against Shaker, limiting their offensive opportunities against goalie Jenna Amodio.

Saratoga took its 4-2 halftime lead and continued to apply pressure with and without the ball.

“We teach them that they’ve got to be aggressive and when they turn the ball over they’re on [defense],” Furze said. “They [Shaker] had a hard time getting it out of our end.”

Saratoga was led by junior Carly Wise with three goals and senior Allison Shamberger with a goal and two assists in the championship game.

“I’ve been on this team since eighth grade, but that got canceled due to COVID,” Wise said. “Freshman through junior year, every year, we’ve come so close and weren’t exactly able to grasp it. This is really special.

“Last year we upset the number one seed, came to the sectional finals and lost [12-8 to Shenendehowa], but we knew that wasn’t gonna happen this year. We upset the number one seed last week [Shenendehowa] and we were ready for it this year; it wasn’t going to happen again this year.”

Saratoga will face the Section 1 champion on May 30 at 7:30 p.m. at Schuylerville High School in a NYSPHSAA Class A sub-regional match-up.

Shaker 2 3 — 5

Saratoga Springs 4 4 — 8

Shaker scoring: Lauren O’Hagan 2-0, Ava Scattareggia 1-0, Sarah Bette 1-0, Kacie Pilla 1-0, Caroline Austin 0-1. Saratoga Springs scoring: Carly Wise 3-0, Janie Baringer 1-0, Faith Britton 2-0, Emery Judge, Allison Shamberger 1-2.