GUILDERLAND — Tuesday, for four minutes of the boys’ lacrosse contest at Niskayuna, the Guilderland Dutchmen looked marvelous.

Unfortunately for the Dutchmen, it was the only good four minutes of offense they played.

The good news for the Guilderland laxmen was that the defense played well and they lost by just one goal, 5-4.

“We didn’t turn the ball over for four minutes,” Guilderland Coach Sean McConaghy said. “Every other time, we turned the ball over. That’s something you can’t do against a great team let alone any team. They had the ball the whole game.”

It was the first loss of the season for the Dutchmen.

Niskayuna led, 2-0, thanks to two first-period goals by Jared Franze.

Moment of glory

The Dutch went on a run midway through the second quarter that was the most impressive stretch of lacrosse in the entire game.

Senior attackman Quinn Connell scored an unassisted goal with 8:18 left in the second stanza to put the Dutchmen on the scoreboard.

Connell assisted on the second goal the Dutch scored.

Connell got a pass on a fast break and passed the ball to senior midfielder Aaron Cahill who finished the play with a goal.

The play started when senior defenseman Paul Malamood scooped up a loose ball to start the fast break.

Junior midfielder Rory Nunamacher scored the third goal on a laser shot from the top of the restraining box. Connell assisted on that goal as well.

Junior attack E.J. Genzano scored the fourth goal for the Dutchmen with 4:24 left until halftime.

Genzano got a pass from sophomore Paul Jones and with a quick stick, got the ball past Niskayuna goalie James Manchester.

“We passed the ball and created transition,” McConaghy said. “That was the only time we did that all day.”

Eagles soar

But Niskayuna answered with two goals to tie the game before halftime.

Steve D’Amario, who will play next year at the University of Massachusetts, scored an unassisted goal with 2:21 left in the half.

D’Amario assisted on the next goal, feeding Will McPartlon who got the ball past Guilderland goalie Nick Koss.

“They got a couple of them back,” McConaghy said. “If we stop them there, it’s a different story.”

The two teams, which have high-powered offenses, combined for one goal in the second half.

Seth Berggren scored for Niskayuna with 7.6 seconds left in the third quarter.

The unassisted tally gave the Silver Warriors a 5-4 lead.

Niskayuna did a good job of running time off the clock, but Guilderland had some opportunities at the end of the game to send it into overtime.

Junior defender Kip Stillman checked the ball out of a Silver Warrior player’s stick on the defensive end of the field.

Stillman scooped up the loose ball and the Dutchmen moved the ball up the field and took a timeout.

After the timeout, Brian Linehan took a shot that was blocked by a Niskayuna defenseman and Stillman took a shot that went wide.

After another timeout, the Dutchmen did not get another shot off and Niskayuna was able to hold onto the win.

“We didn’t take care of the ball today,” McConaghy said. “Niskayuna did. We had a couple of chances and we turned the ball right over.”

Koss was the star of the game for the Dutchmen. He turned away 21 Niskayuna shots in goal.

Manchester made nine saves for the Silver Warriors.

Niskayuna took 34 shots in the contest and Guilderland had 20. The battle for ground balls was fairly even with the Silver Warriors grabbing four more, 27-23.

Up next

The two teams will meet again in about a month. The Dutchmen will host Niskayuna for their senior night on May 20.

Guilderland is 6-1 overall and 5-1 in the Suburban Council. The Dutch hold big wins over Lakeland of Section I and Shenendehowa as well as Saratoga and Shaker.

Up next for Guilderland is a contest against Columbia at home on Thursday. The Dutchmen play at Bethlehem on Friday then get a little break before hosting Shenendehowa on Thursday, May 1.

McConaghy hopes that the Dutchmen will bounce back from what he called his team’s worse performance of the season.

“It was the worst display of passing and catching all year,” he said. “There’s no explanation other than maybe we were nervous. I don’t know. This is not the first big game we’ve played this year.”