GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland girls’ lacrosse team has a lot of depth and it showed in Friday’s Suburban Council match with Shaker.

The Lady Dutch got goals from seven different players in a 16-11 decision played at Guilderland High School.

Kayla Best, Amanda Best, Abbey Fashouer, Valerie Feldman, Danielle Tetreault, Kaitlyn Vennard, and Molly Daley all scored to keep the Lady Dutch unbeaten in Suburban Council play.

The team improved to 7-0 in the league with a 10-8 win over Saratoga on Tuesday.

But Friday’s game wasn’t easy.
"The kids turned it on when they had to," said Guilderland Coach Gary Chatnik. "I got everybody in the game. The kids that have not gotten that much time got a lot of experience. They did a good job."

The Dutch held a four-goal lead, 10-6, until halftime and then rattled off the first five goals of the second half to build a nine-goal lead.

Vennard opened the second half, scoring with a tally at the 22:18 mark. She was assisted by Kayla Best.

The Dutch offense was at its best in the early part of the second half.

Feldman scored on a well-executed play where she cut to the goal and received a perfect pass from Daley.

That combination worked well a few minutes later as Felman scored again with an assist from Daley with 11:19 left in the contest.

Amanda Best scored on a free possession after a Shaker foul with 9:12 left in the second half to make the score 14-6.

Feldman scored again two minutes later with an assist from Nikki Branchini.

Lexi Dalcol ended the Guilderland run and got Shaker back on the board with a goal with 5:53 left in the contest.

But Daley answered with a goal that essentially put the game away with 4:57 left in the contest. Daley was assisted by Fashouer.

Shaker scored four goals in the final 4:33 to make the game close but the Dutch lead was safe.

Kat Thomas scored two goals and Liza Gross and Caroline Rehfuss each added a tally.
"Shaker is a good team," Chatnik said. "When they had to, they made a run. We let them hang around too long, especially early. We threw the ball away a couple of times."

Daley opened the scoring in the contest after she picked up a loose ball and ran through the Shaker defense and fired a shot into the upper corner. Kayla Best scored with an assist from Lynn Tran to make the score 2-0.

After Shaker scored three goals to take the lead with 15:57 left in the half, Amanda Best tied it at 3-3 on the ensuing draw. Best was assisted by her older sister, Kayla.

The Lady Dutch then scored three straight goals to lead by a score of 6-3.

Daley scored an unassisted goal; Tetreault scored with an assist from Branchini and Kayla Best scored unassisted.

After Shaker scored, Tetreault and Vennard tallied goals. Vennard was assisted by Daley.

Fashour scored two goals for the Lady Dutch in the first half, the second gave her team a four-goal cushion at the intermission.

Jen Kaye made 15 saves in goal for Guilderland and Rachael Coons made seven saves for Shaker.
"We did a lot of things better in the second half," Chatnik said. "We felt good when we got up by that much, but I knew they would get a couple of goals in the end."
"Very deep"

The Dutch were coming off a 15-2 win over Colonie earlier in the week that kept them unbeaten in the Suburban Council. Guilderland lost its second game of the season on Saturday night after making the trip to the Syracuse area to take on Liverpool. The Dutch’s only other loss this season came to another Section III school, Fayetville-Manlius.
"We were missing a couple of pieces," Chatnik said of the Fayetville-Manlius game. "The kids came in thinking they were playing the state champions. They did not have the right attitude. I think now they realize that this team can compete with anybody we play."

Chatnik likes what he has seen from his team so far, but thinks that his players can still be better.
"We are getting healthy," the coach said. "We should be at full strength next week. We’ll get Jen Mihok back. We’ve had some nagging injuries.
"We’re solid," Chatnik added. "Everyone is in the right position. We go very deep. We have freshmen in the game that can handle the ball."

Chatnik realizes that the Dutch still have some tough games as the season begins to wind down.

The Dutch play at Columbia today (Thursday) and then host Mount Anthony Union High School of Vermont on Saturday. Guilderland then travels to take on rival Bethlehem on Tuesday. The Dutch handed the Eagles their first Section II loss in over three years earlier this month.
"The Suburban Council is as good as any league in the state," Chatnik said. "Each team has terrific players, good experience, and leadership. Our seniors have stepped up and have done a nice job."