GUILDERLAND — As time was winding down, Guilderland lacrosse teammates Bob McIver and Ron Buck made eye contact.

Just a couple seconds later McIver fired a low underhand shot from 12 yards out that sparked a big celebration.

McIver scored with no time left on the clock to give the Dutchmen a 6-5 win over rival Shenendehowa in Clifton Park on Tuesday afternoon.
"I looked at Ronnie with four seconds left," McIver said after the game. "I thought, ‘Why not"’ That goalie owned me up high all day. I wanted to keep the ball low and see what happens."
"I was excited to see a sophomore attackman not throw the ball away and come through at a big time," said Guilderland Coach Sean McConaghy of the winning goal. "Obviously, we wanted to get the ball to either Bob or Mike [Camardo]. Bob got a lefty shot and he put it in the net."

The last five minutes of the game made up for a very sloppy game played by both teams and especially by the Guilderland offense.
"I felt that we didn’t get off the bus until the third quarter," said McIver, who is bound for Binghamton University in the fall. "The offense didn’t play well until the third quarter. We had lead legs in the first half."
"The last five minutes were a positive," McConaghy said. "They were tough kids and we were not in the first half. They beat us to groundballs and beat us on face-offs. They beat us up.
"In the second half, the defense stepped up," McConaghy added. "And in the last five minutes the offense decided it wanted to play."

Slow start

Neither team could get any offense in the first half as sloppy play ruled the day.

The first quarter ended in a 2-2 deadlock.

Guilderland scored first on a goal by Camardo. The senior, who is headed to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County to play Division I lacrosse, ripped a shot that found the upper corner.

Shen tied the game with 6:46 left in the opening stanza on a tally by Will Riddervold. His low shot was assisted by John Olsen.

Guilderland scored again just 45 seconds later as McIver scored on a strong move to the goal. He came around from behind the cage and fired a shot into the upper-left corner.

Greg Hitchko tied the game for Shen with 4:59 left. He was assisted by Ryan Desalvatore.

Shen took the lead in the second quarter on a tally by Olsen. Shen added another with 1:20 to go before halftime.

Hitchko got his second goal of the game with an assist by Riddervold to put the Plainsmen up by two at halftime.

Shen then built onto the lead with 10:42 left in the third stanza.

Olsen scored again, this time with an assist from Adam Hitchko.

Comeback trail

The Dutchmen started their comeback with 6:26 left in the third quarter.

Sophomore Aaron Cahill scored on a bounce shot from the outside.

Junior Uriah Myrie pulled the Dutch within one with a goal with 4:52 left in the fourth quarter. Myrie got a pass from Buck and dodged a couple of defenders to fire a shot past Shen goalie T.J. Costigan.

Senior Sean Davis tied the game with 4:11 left in the final stanza.

After a Shen penalty, the Dutch worked the ball around until Davis was able to get open and take a pass from Myrie and fire an outside shot for the tying tally.

A Shenendehowa penalty set up the winning goal.
"It’s important to take advantage of penalties," McIver said. "We work hard on our man-up and our man-down. They have gelled as a unit. We don’t want the other team to score on penalties. I’m proud of our defense and our goalie is our MVP."

Judd Robinson is that most valuable player as he stopped 12 shots, including some key ones in the fourth quarter.

Costigan made 15 saves for the Plainsmen.

The win bumps the Dutchmen to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the Suburban Council.
"Five and 0 is a good start," McIver said. "Last year, we didn’t have consecutive wins until late in the season. I’m happy to have that zero in the loss column."

But the Dutch will have some challenges coming up in the next week. The Dutch played LaSalle on Wednesday. Guilderland then plays at Lakeland of Section I on Saturday and then travels to defending sectional champion Niskayuna on Monday for a vacation-time start of noon.
"We’re a 5-0 lacrosse team but we have Lakeland on Saturday," McConaghy said. "We have two tough non-league games and obviously Niskayuna on Monday is marked on all of our calendars."