Sports Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, April 14, 2011
Mahopac attack on offense is too much for Guilderland
By Jordan J. Michael
GUILDERLAND –– Head Coach Sean McConaghy was looking for “fire in the belly” from his Dutchmen lacrosse players during halftime at Saturday’s home game against Mahopac. Maybe the players hoped to match the intensity of the coach, who paced up and down the sidelines, yelling out commands and requests.
Mahopac, a non-league opponent from Section I, scored three goals in as many minutes after halftime to bring its lead to 8 to 1. At this point, McConaghy seemed to be on the verge of combustion as the warm sun beamed down onto the field.
“I’m just fired up about this game,” McConaghy said of his sideline behavior after the 12-to-4 loss. “I hope my players are fired up, too. You’ve got to have fire for anything that you do.”
Some Guilderland players were doing the right things; some weren’t. Either way, the offense didn’t score enough goals to win, and the defense had trouble stopping a highly skilled and quick Mahopac offense.
“Some of them hustled their tails off,” said McConaghy of his 26 players. “But it takes all of them. We had one part missing in every aspect of the game.”
For example, a dropped ball during a man-up situation. Or, missing a defensive rotation when the team is man-down, which accounted for a few goals on Saturday. McConaghy even pointed to a few plastic water bottles lying near the bench, left there by his players.
“When you don’t clean up,” McConaghy said. “You run on Monday.”
Connor McLachlan and Taylor Dubose scored goals for the Dutch to get the team within six goals, but Mahopac added three more. T.J. Foley had his own individual fire burning for the visitors, scoring five goals and assisting on two others.
Mahopac was thrilled after the win, one player saying, “Party on the bus, bitches,” clearly for everyone on the sidelines to hear. It wasn’t the first bit of profanity heard in the passionate afternoon contest.
This was the third year in a row that Guilderland had played Mahopac. Dutch Assistant Coach Kris Bremer attended Mahopac with brother coaches Mike and Dave Haddeland, winning the 1996 Class A state title for lacrosse. Saturday marked Mahopac’s first win of the series thus far.
“It’s nice to keep the camaraderie,” said Dave Haddeland. “It’s worth the trip. Especially if we win and prove that Section I is legit.”
The loss for Guilderland was the exact opposite outcome of its first game; an 18-to-2 league win over Columbia. McConaghy told The Enterprise that he tries to schedule the best non-league competition, which, in turn, gets his team ready for almost anything down the road.
“We’re trying to figure out who we are as a team,” said Co-captain Yves Nazon, a senior defender. “We’ll live or die by team play. We have to capitalize and be ready.”
The Dutchmen return to play at Shaker today and McConaghy will most likely be looking for more fire from his players. The coach’s sideline style doesn’t bother Nazon; he is just glad that McConaghy cares.
“You got to realize that he’s in the heat of the moment,” Nazon said. “He’ll always say sorry if he thinks he went too far with something.”