COLONIE, N.Y. — Nothing phases the Saratoga Springs Blue Streaks (4-0, 3-0) girls lacrosse team. The cardiac kids have been here before, winning a double overtime thriller a week ago at Niskayuna. The Blue Streaks leaned on that experience late Tuesday with a 9-8 overtime victory at Colonie.
It helps when one has savvy players, wise beyond their years. Especially, Carly Wise.
“It’s everything. Carly is definitely our ace,” Blue Streak head coach Jennifer Furze remarked on Wise’s five-goal exploits, including the winner in the extra session.
“We depend on her heavily but she’s got a lot of teammates. We’ve got a very deep bench, that Carly also depends on,” Furze noted on the family feel throughout the roster.
“They were face-guarding Carly most of the game. So, we called upon a lot of other players to step up and they did,” Furze added.
One of the many playmakers stepping up was Janie Baringer, with four helpers on the evening. As the Blue Streaks swiftly ended the game in overtime, Baringer kept her “ey-eyes open” to find Wise for the winner.
“Janie Baringer is amazing. She’ll see any cut that you make, she’ll hit it right on your stick,” Wise commented on her teammate’s vision.
“She sees it every single time and we both have such a good relationship that we trust each other. She trusts me to catch it. I trust her to get it right to my stick and I’m really glad we could do that together,” Wise added regarding their connection.
Also among those players stepping up for coach Furze’s squad was Faith Britton, who took full advantage of the Raiders’ face-guarding of Wise, to post a hat trick.
After Colonie jumped out to a 2-0 advantage on markers from Kate Boardman and Avery Connolly, Saratoga Springs’ reeled off a 7-0 run. In that run from the mid-first to the late-second, Wise and Britton both netted hat tricks, with Sarah Berls also lighting the lamp. Britton netted the early equalizer and helped take on the scoring load for the Blue Streaks.
“Faith is coming up huge this year as an underclassman. We are super excited for her. She’s ambidextrous. She can go right or left. She’s strong, she finds those holes and she weaves through [the] defense, there’s nothing that stops her, so we’re very excited about Faith Britton,” Furze noted on Britton’s outing.
“We have a lot of talent on the team obviously, so we have a lot of chemistry and we know when we can clear for each other, and with the help of my teammates, they open those lanes for me and we just connected and it showed,” Britton commented on how her teammates helped open up opportunities on offense.
While the Raiders rallied with a 4-0 run from the end of the second and into the third, Blue Streaks keeper Jenna Amodio kept her poise and matched her counterpart Emma Taylor between the pipes.
“Jenna has come up clutch for us in many of these nail-biter games,” Furze remarked on Amodio’s steadiness.
“She does a nice job maintaining composure when they’re attacking her, trying to get the ball out. We depend on Jenna, she’s an all-around great kid and a great player,” Furze noted.
While the Raiders squared the contest at eight with 5:24 remaining in the fourth frame, Amodio and her defense corps did not break.
“It was a pretty big game for us. It’s a situation that I’ve been in before, so it gave me a little bit to reset and calm down and I think once our teammates lock in we’re all on the same team and we all play good together as a unit, it was really fun,” Amodio remarked on the familiar tight game situation.
“It’s all about my mindset, goals come and go and you just have to get your head back up, never look down, and get ready for the next play,” Amodio explained.
“I think it definitely helped us out, a couple of big saves but we also had a really strong defensive unit that helped us out a lot,” Amodio added on her squad’s late-game resolve.
Britton and Wise concurred about how much this group has learned in pulling out some close calls in the early going.
“We had Nisky the other day and that was another tight game, so we kinda had been in this situation before and once we started getting our momentum up, we just kept going and we just trusted each other and we got it done,” Britton noted on the trust factor.
“It’s definitely a confidence booster and I knew that we could do it. We’ve been working really hard in practice and it’s still early in the season, so it’s definitely comforting to know that we can finish fast,” Wise added on their closer mentality.
The Blue Streaks will surely use that pressure-packed experience in their next tilt with Bethlehem Saturday.
“We’re looking forward to Bethlehem, that’s for sure, we are definitely looking forward to Saturday, we’re ready for the comeback this year,” Furze added.
