GUILDERLAND — The team could not get around the stonewall that was Bethlehem’s Emily Szelest in Tuesday’s showdown between the two top teams in the Suburban Council.

Goalkeeper Szelest, who is bound for Penn State University to play lacrosse next year, stopped 13 shots, six in the second half to lead the Eagles to a 10-8 win over Guilderland at Bethlehem High School.

The loss was the first for Guilderland in league play this season. Bethlehem avenged an earlier 11-10 loss to the Lady Dutch.
"Their goalie was outstanding," said Guilderland Coach Gary Chatnik. "But they also worked to get ground balls more than us. This was not our best effort."

Guilderland was also a victim of a late first-half scoring surge. Bethlehem scored the last five goals of the half to take a 6-3 halftime lead.

Guilderland led, 3-1, after a goal by Kayla Best with 7:55 left in the opening half. Best’s goal was assisted by Lauren Driessen.

Halley Quillinan led the Bethlehem charge with the first two goals of the run. Her first tally came with 4:50 remaining and the second — which was assisted by Tee Ladouceur — came with 2:58 left in the first frame.

Quillinan assisted on the next goal, which was scored by Cate Quinlan with 2:09 left. Ladouceur scored then, a free position goal after a Guilderland foul deep in their territory with 1:38 left. That brought the score to 5-3.

Bethlehem got another free position goal to round out the scoring in the first half. This time, Michelle Primomo scored with 26 seconds left in the half.

Guilderland got goals from Amanda Best and Kaitlyn Vennard in the first half. Vennard’s goal was a well placed shot between the legs of Szelest and gave the Dutch a 3-1 lead.

Quillinan scored the first goal of the game with an assist from Ladouceur.

"Very erratic"

Guilderland got the first goal of the second half as Molly Daley scored just 43 seconds in. She was assisted by Kayla Best.

But Bethlehem answered with goals from Quillinan with 23:22 left and by Ladouceur with 22:389 left in the second half. Ladouceur’s goal was assisted by Quinlan.

Abbey Fashouer kept Guilderland’s hopes of victory alive with 12:08 left in the contest. She scored on an unassisted bounce shot that snuck by Szelest.

The tally made the score 8-5 in favor of Bethlehem.

But Bethlehem came right back with two goals to take a five-goal lead.

Ladouceur scored on a free position with 10:05 left in the game and Tricia Primomo added a free position goal with 8:51 left to make the score 10-5.

The Dutch scored the final three goals of the contest to give themselves a chance.

Kayla Best scored with 4:45 left to give Guilderland a glimmer of hope.

Valerie Feldman then added two goals for the Lady Dutch. The first came when she stole the ball from Szelest, left of the goal, and fired a shot on the wide-open goal to cut the lead to three, 10-7, with 4:04 left.

But the Dutch couldn’t get any more shots past Szelest until Feldman scored on a free position with 29 seconds left in the game; by then, Bethlehem had the game pretty much sealed.

Szelest made three big saves — two on free positions — on low shots to preserve the lead and give her team the win.

Guilderland goalie Jen Kaye made three saves.
"We were very erratic today," Chatnik said. "We handled the ball poorly. I give credit to Bethlehem; their players wanted the ball more than us.

Even league
"We didn’t have our best type effort," Chatnik added. "I saw some things we have to work on. But this was an excellent game between two evenly-matched teams."

Chatnik was impressed with the play of Quillinan who finished the game with four goals.
"Halley showed a lot today," the coach said. "She shows a lot every game. But she was a big focal point for us. We did a good job on her in the second half but the rest of her team stepped up."

The loss drops the Lady Dutch’s record to 11-3 overall and 8-1 in the Suburban Council.

Guilderland still has four games remaining — all league contests — before it heads into sectionals as probably one of the top two seeds. The Dutch play host Shenendehowa today (Thursday) and Averill Park on Saturday. Guilderland then will travel to play Ballston Spa on Monday and at Shaker next Friday to wrap up the regular season.

The Dutch will need to win the rest of their games to be near the top of the league, but it won’t be easy.
"The whole league is very even," Chatnik said. "We’ve played a lot of close games. We like to keep things interesting it seems. Teams come at us with their best and I think there are six teams that are pretty even.
"I really believe we’ve not had an easy game with any of those six teams," Chatnik added. "And, until someone else beats Bethlehem, they are still the best team. I think we have the talent to do it."