GUILDERLAND — The team showed its toughness on Tuesday night.

The Dutchmen, who are near the top of the Suburban Council, just behind Niskayuna, got off to a strong start and fought off a pesky, physical Columbia team for a 12-5 victory under the lights of the football field at Guilderland High School.
"This is definitely big," Guilderland Coach Sean McConaghy said after the game. "Every team in the Suburban Council has about a .500 average. They were 11-2 coming in and we were 12-2. We really came out to play. We played the whole 48 minutes and I haven’t seen that this year before tonight. Well, it was as close to 48 minutes as I’ve seen. Maybe it was 44."

Uriah Myrie got the Dutchmen on the scoreboard with 7:43 left in the first quarter. Myrie received a pass from Bob McIver in front of the goal after McIver caused a turnover with a stick check.

McIver then scored an unassisted goal after blowing by the Columbia defense with 7:05 left in the opening stanza.

Chris Conway scored an unassisted goal on a jumping high shot with 6:35 left in the first quarter.

Columbia got its first goal of the game with 4:03 left in the first quarter. Kyle Balzer scored with an assist from Casey Balzer.

But the Guilderland offense continued its good offensive showing on Tuesday and got a goal by Matt Stillman after moving the ball around. Mike Camardo found an open Stillman in front of the goal to make the score 4-1.

Guilderland tacked on another goal in the first quarter. Conway scored with 2:17 left in the frame with an assist from McIver.

Ben Newell scored an unassisted man-up goal, after a Columbia penalty, with 10:48 left in the second half.

Columbia got a goal from Timmy Daigle on an extra-man opportunity. Corey Heck got the assist.

The Dutchmen scored with 4:47 left until halftime.

Strong defense

Kelly Young caused a turnover in the Columbia offensive end and started a fast break. Young passed the ball to a teammate, got the ball back, and passed to Stephen Puvogel for a goal — to make the score 7-2.

Kyle Balzer kept Columbia in the game with 6:34 to go in the third quarter. Balzer scored on an extra-man goal to make the score 7-3.

McIver increased the Dutchmen’s lead with an unassisted goal on a man-up opportunity. Myrie scored with 2:24 left in the third period. The teams were playing five-on-five after a penalty to a player on each team. McIver assisted on the tally.

Guilderland rattled off three goals to start the fourth quarter.

McIver scored on a fast break with an assist from Young. Stillman scored with an assist from Aaron Cahill. Sean Davis scored an unassisted goal with 7:16 left in the game to make the score 12-3.

Columbia scored two goals in the final minute-and-a-half but the outcome was long decided.

The Guilderland defense was tough all night as defensemen Colin Brunk, Matt Rimmer, Scott Raffensperger, Kip Stillman, and defensive middies Young and Puvogel did the job shutting down a good Columbia offense.
"They have six guys that can move the ball and have 25 points each," McConaghy said. "They don’t have one go-to guy. Our defense played strong and we got some transition goals. We moved the ball well."

Guilderland goalie Judd Robinson made 13 saves.

Columbia took 32 shots to outshoot the Dutch by eight, but Guilderland was much more accurate.

Jordan Dubose also helped Guilderland win 12 of 19 face-offs.
"Those guys on the Columbia team are a tough bunch of kids," McConaghy said. "But we didn’t break down. We had some hits. The defense came to play and laid some lumber."

On to sectionals

The win improves the Dutchmen’s record to 13-2 overall and 10-1 in the Suburban Council. Guilderland plays Bethlehem today (Thursday) then wraps up the regular season against Saratoga on Tuesday and against Niskayuna, the top team in the league, next Thursday.
"We want to play good lacrosse in May so we can play lacrosse in June," McConaghy said of the sectionals.

The Dutch have broken down the season into three smaller ones. They are in the second season and heading toward sectionals, which is the third season.
"We’re in the second season to fine tune everything," McConaghy said. "We had dinner together and we talked about regressing and how we can avoid that. We want to rededicate ourselves."