GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland boys’ lacrosse team had just won its third straight game on Wednesday, but there was no joy on the faces of the players or coaches.

Even though the Dutchmen beat rival Shenendehowa, 11-4, there were two main reasons why no one was happy.

One was that Shen’s team was severely undermanned and the other was that Guilderland did not play well for four quarters.
"It’s been the same story all year," said Guilderland Coach Sean McConahgy. "This wasn’t a typically Shenendehowa team. They didn’t even have half of their guys. But we decided to keep them in it for awhile."

Shen was missing a group of players who were suspended. The Plainsmen only had 13 players at the game — 10 are on the field at a time.

Unfocused play

Even so, the Dutchmen only led 5-1 at halftime, and Shen cut the lead to two goals, 5-3, early in the third quarter.

The Dutch answered with two goals of their own later in the quarter. Matt Stillman tallied with 2:23 left in the frame. He got a pass from Aaron Cahill in front of the goal and got the shot by Shen goalie Robert Wardwell, an eighth-grader.

Greg Murphy scored an unassisted goal with 27 seconds to go in the quarter to make the score 7-3.

The Dutch opened the door for Shen to come back.

A slashing penalty on Stillman with 10 seconds to go in the stanza gave Shen an extra-man opportunity that the Plainsmen took into the final period. An illegal stick penalty on Stillman added another three minutes to his time in the penalty box. The Dutch also had to play two men down. Thirty seconds into the period, the Dutch were three men down as Scott Raffensperger picked up a slashing penalty.

The Dutchmen successfully killed off the penalties without giving up too many shots.

Guilderland scored with 8:08 left in the quarter on a goal by Cahill. He was assisted by Stillman, who found Cahill wide open on the crease.

Uriah Myrie scored with 7:09 left in the game on an extra-man advantage. Myrie was assisted by Rory Nunamacher.

Stillman scored again for Guilderland. He was assisted by Quinn Connell, after the ball bounced off Connell’s stick and went right to Stillman in front of the goal.

Shen scored with 3:41 left in the frame, but Guilderland got a final goal from Myrie with one second left. Guilderland went on a fast break and Myrie got the ball from Nunamacher in front of the goal and finished the play just before the final horn sounded.

Travis Moore opened the scoring in the game for the Dutchmen. He scored with 7:36 left on an assist from Brian Linehan.

Cahill scored with 2:42 to go in the frame with an assist from Connell. Murphy tallied with 1:37 to go off a feed from Jordan Dubose.

Dubose, with an assist from Myrie, and Stillman, with an assist from Connell, scored for the Dutch in the second quarter.

Anthony Zappone scored the three first-half goals for Shenendehowa.

Nick Koss made four saves in net for the Dutchmen. Wardwell made 18 saves for the Plainsmen.

Guilderland also won the face-off battle, 12-6.

Bowling for camaraderie
"We possessed the ball," McConaghy said, pointing out a positive aspect of the game. "But we made their goalie look like an All-American. We got shots, we just have to finish them."

What McConaghy is looking for from his team is consistency. He wants his players to play as hard as they can for the entire 48 minutes of game time.
"I’ve tried everything," McConaghy said. "Tomorrow [Thursday] we’re going bowling. We need to come together. We have nine guys playing and we can’t have one screwing it up for everyone else.
"We react to what other people do," he added. "Then we feel a sense of urgency"We play down to the level of the other team."

But the most positive accomplishment for McConaghy and his team is they won three games in a row. The Dutchmen beat Rome Free Academy last Thursday, 15-4, and Suburban Council rival Colonie, 11-6, on Monday.
"After starting 0-2, we’re now 3-2," McConaghy said. "That’s a positive. We’ll see what happens on Friday. That’ll be a test. Saratoga is a good team. They have good athletes; it should be a fun game."

After Friday’s game at Saratoga, the Dutch return home to play Ballston Spa on Tuesday and Shaker next Thursday.

By then, McConaghy hopes that his players have found the one thing that his team seems to be missing.
"Desire, we don’t have it yet," the coach said. "Some of the guys do. The sophomores stepped up. The juniors need to and the seniors need to."