It’s been a long road for the Amsterdam High School girls lacrosse team to become competitive in the Foothills Council after stepping up to the varsity level in 2017. While the first half of the team’s opening game on Monday at the Lynch Literacy Academy field showed the team’s potential, the second half indicated the team still has their work cut out for them as their opponent Scotia-Glenville opened the second half on a 7-0 run and pulled away for a 17-6 victory over Amsterdam. Four Lady Tartans had multi-goal games, including hat tricks from Olivia Geniti, Givanna Bianchi and Morgan Nichter.
“The first half was good, [but] I think we fell apart at the beginning of the second half,” said AHS coach Jessica Verrigni.
Geniti scored twice within the first four minutes of the game to help Scotia-Glenville jump out to an early 3-0 lead. The Lady Tartans maintained pressure on Amsterdam’s defense for the next six minutes, but senior goaltender Kelly Kilgallen made several saves to keep the Lady Rams within striking distance.
Junior Kayli Hoefs got Amsterdam on the scoreboard midway through the first half to trim the deficit to 3-1. Bianchi responded with her first goal of the game, but freshman Sydney Hoefs charged in a short time later and put the ball past goalie Julia Carroll to make it a two-goal game again.
Scotia-Glenville began padding its lead late in the first half on goals by Nichter, Bianchi and Maya Bellamy. Kayli Hoefs tallied five seconds before halftime to make the score 7-3 before the Lady Tartans pulled away for good.
The Hoefs sisters each finished with a hat trick, with most of their goals resulting from individual moves they made towards the cage. Verrigni pointed out that those moves wouldn’t have been possible without their teammates setting picks and clearing space down the middle of the field.
“Nothing is individualized,” said Verrigni. “We all needed to help to get the ball up the field.”
Prior to the game, though, Verrigni said it will take more than one or two players scoring goals to help Amsterdam escape the bottom of the Foothills Council standings.
“We definitely have a bunch of players who can score goals,” said Verrigni. “Kayli Hoefs, Sydney Hoefs, Elena Fedullo [and] Lily Orengo … they’re all capable of scoring goals. You’ve got to be able to have more than one player who can score.”
The Lady Rams will look to establish a more balanced attack in Wednesday’s game against Schuylerville – the second half of a tough opening stretch for the Lady Rams against two of the Foothills Council’s traditional powers.
“I definitely expect to have a much more competitive team this year,” said Verrigni. “We’ve come a long way over the last few years.”
