LATHAM, NY – Don’t sleep on Schuylerville for “title town” considerations after a football state championship in the fall, a basketball sectional title in the winter, and now lacrosse sectional titles in the spring for both the boys and girls lacrosse teams as well as a baseball sectional title.
“I think we have a group of kids that growing up they were constantly playing outside,” said Schuylerville head coach Morgan Cornell. “They were playing in the yards and riding their bikes over to each other’s houses and I think the big thing for them is that they play year round. There are not too many one specific sport kids, they are all well rounded athletes and that contributes to it.”
Schuylerville rolled to the Section II, Class D title with an 18-8 win over Mechanicville-Stillwater at Shaker High School. Leading the Black Horses was Nate King with four goals and two assists. Ollie Bolduc added four of his own goals in the win.
“We’ve been getting it done lately,” said King on the sectional title accumulation. “Everybody is playing well lately.”
Schuylerville had six different goal scorers in the win and every goal scorer was a multi-goal scorer. Zach Bowen added three goals and three assists alongside Bolduc and King on the attack to help spread the offense out.
“The one thing that is so great about this group and one of the things that makes it so fun to coach them is that you can take a kid and move them to a different spot,” said Cornell. “Whether it is an attacker and you move him to midfield to get a different angle at the cage and all of them have such good lacrosse IQ. They know how to play in space and that contributes to their success.”
Schuylerville took a 4-1 lead out of the first quarter and then a 9-3 lead into the halftime break and from there they never looked back.
“We knew they had a lot of well rounded athletes all over the field so we knew that coming into this game we wanted to slide early to those athletes,” said Cornell on limiting Stillwater-Mechanicville’s chances. “We tried to take them out of the game and force their lesser skilled guys who are new to the game to try and make some looks and take some shots.”
Schuylerville claims the @Sect2athletics Class D boys lacrosse championship #518Lax pic.twitter.com/3iQNcvjTp2
— Joe Boyle (@boyleralertTroy) June 1, 2022
Mechanicville-Stillwater, the top seed in the sectional tournament (Schuylerville was the two) is in just its second year of varsity competition as it battled for the Section II, Class D title.
“I think they have grown tremendously,” said Cornell on Mechanicville-Stillwater’s growth from the beginning of the season to now. “I think in that combo practice we had at the beginning of the year we saw they had athletes, but they were raw. They have done a great job of catching their guys up to speed on what they are supposed to be doing.”
Mechanicville-Stillwater’s offense was led by Caleb Dyer and Andrew Sgambati who had three goals apiece. Mike Marinello contributed two goals and Colby Paffen added two assists.
Schuylerville added nine more goals in the second half and allowed just five as the Black Horses upset the top seed and continue their season into the state tournament.
“Last year was the same type of thing, we were the three seed and we came in and played the two and that fired us up pretty well, we fell to a great Johnstown team,” said Cornell. “I told them to take it personally that they weren’t the number one seed. I would rather be the team hunting a team than be the team that is being hunted.”
Schuylerville will play Briarcliff out of Section I on Saturday at Shaker at 10 am in the NYSPHSAA Regional round. The winner of that matchup will move on to UAlbany for the state semifinals.
“They are a very good team from Section I. We have some work to do,” said Cornell. “The guys know that.”
SCHUYLERVILLE 18, MECHANICVILLE-STILLWATER 8
Shaker High School
Latham, New York
SCHUY 4-5-6-3 – 18
MS 1-2-3-2 – 8
Schuylerville
Nate King 4 goals and 2 assists; Zach Bowen 3 goals and 3 assists; Ollie Bolduc 4 goals; Hansen Peck 2 goals and 6 assists; Otto Bolduc 2 goals and 2 assists; Asher Harrison 6 saves
Mechanicville-Stillwater
Mike Marinello 2 goals; Caleb Dyer 3 goals; Andrew Sgambati 3 goals; Colby Paffen 2 assists; Evan Coe 15 saves
