HENRIETTA — Despite the struggles of the Empire State Games Adirondack Lacrosse Team, a pair of Guilderland High School representatives still enjoyed their time at the annual summer event.

Aaron Cahill, a junior, and Scott Raffensperger, a senior, came off the field at the Rochester Institute of Technology after one of their better performances of the tournament, a 9-6 loss to Hudson Valley, on Saturday afternoon and still grateful of the opportunity they had for being at the games.
"It’s fun here," Cahill said. "There are a lot of good kids."
"It’s fun to represent the Adirondack region," Raffensperger said. "The tournament makes for a hectic schedule."

The Adirondack players struggled to come together and play as a team until that game.
"I feel like we got some talented players," Raffensperger said. "We just haven’t seen it all in one game. If we do that, we are one of the best teams here. If we play for four quarters, we can beat anyone."

But the Adirondack team members did not use enough of their talents to win a game in the tournament.

They went 0-5 in the games and the 9-6 margin of loss against Hudson Valley was the closest of the four-day event.

Adirondack opened the tournament with a 19-4 loss to Central on Thursday. Adirondack then lost, 15-4, to Western and 12-7 to New York City on Friday. The team then lost to Hudson Valley on Saturday and wrapped up the tourney with a 19-5 loss to Long Island.
"It’s been rough," Raffensperger said on Saturday before the final game. "We haven’t really meshed yet. There was a big difference between the first half and the second half. We practiced this morning. We really wanted to get a win under our belts. In the second half, we stopped playing as individuals and started playing as a team."
"Really our practice time was limited," Cahill said. "We tried to get together a couple of times at Niskayuna but we needed more practices."

The team was loaded with players from Niskayuna and other schools in the Suburban Council but players also came from far-flung places such as Canton. The team was coached by Bob Sipperly of Greenwich and David Bradman of Canton.

"A whole new experience"

Raffensperger and Cahill are happy with the experience of the games and gained a lot from participating in them.
"You get here and it’s a whole new experience. Most kids are DI caliber," Raffensperger said, referring to Division I colleges. "It’s really good lacrosse. The best play here."
"I’m looking forward to another year here," Cahill said of the opportunity of playing in next year’s games.

Both are looking forward to next spring and dethroning Niskayuna, the Section II champions.
"I think we have as good a team as last year," Cahill said of the Guilderland High School lacrosse team. "We’re going to do a lot more team bonding than last year. We’ll have a good year."
"Next year, we can win Section II," said Raffensperger, who is being recruited by Divison I schools like the University at Albany and the University of Massachusetts. "Everybody isn’t going to be expecting that much from us next year."