Devoe records career point No. 100 as Shaker doubles up Ballston Spa in sectional semifinal win

LATHAM, N.Y. — The Section 2 Class A boys lacrosse sectional semifinal tilt between the No. 2 Shaker Blue Bison and No. 3 Ballston Spa Scotties, saw a final result similar to their 14-8 contest won by the Blue Bison in the regular season. Friday evening in Latham, the Blue Bison doubled up the Scotties 14-7 and advanced to the championship game.

During the first frame, the Blue Bison rumbled to a 1-0 edge, and senior midfielder Liam Chudziski bested Scotties’ keeper Tim Sikoryak for his first of two tallies on the night.

Yet, sophomore attack Vinny Rossetti quickly for the scrappy Scotties, netting the equalizer past Blue Bison keeper Michael Baccaro.

From there, the Blue Bison turned stout defense into a scorching offense with a 3-0 run. Senior midfielder Ryan Baccaro regained the lead for the Blue Bison. Off a turnover, fellow midfielder Grame Teal cashed in with a marker. Expanding the advantage was sophomore attack Michael Hennessey ripping rope to make it 4-1.

“It was very big,” Hennessey commented on the importance of a fast start.

“The energy had to be high for us to keep on going. Once we got going, we couldn’t stop,” Hennessey explained.

After Ballston’s senior attack Peter Siracuse cut the deficit to 4-2, another Shaker middie had an answer.

Sophomore Tanner Donovan tickled the twine and upped the advantage to 5-2.

Shaker’s senior leadership in attack Colin Devoe, capped off a 6-2 first frame.

The second stanza saw the Scotties play the Blue Bison even. Ballston Spa’s junior midfielder Nick Nazarian notched a goal to cut the deficit in half.

Shaker rebounded and Teal tickled the twine again.

However, the Scotties crept closer. Declon Phillips scored and junior attack Tyler Curcio tallied with a man-up and Ballston Spa pulled within a pair.

Yet, that was as close as the Scotties came.

“I think we had a slower start than we would’ve liked. Showed good perseverance to come back in that second quarter and get it to within three,” Scotties head coach Luke Snow remarked on the first half.

“We just didn’t sustain the run long enough to get too much closer the rest of the game. Our kids worked hard but credit to Shaker for putting us in tough spots on our clear and on their defense and defending them too,” Snow continued.

He also reflected on the run and camaraderie forged with this Ballston Spa squad all season.

“I’m not usually at a loss for words but it was one of the first times where you get in front of kids and you don’t have a lot to say. It was hard,” Snow noted.

“Special group of kids. One of the more tight groups that I’ve ever coached, sleepovers, team dinners, team movie nights, going out to eat together, they were just a really very special group of young men that kinda knew what it meant when they break the huddle as family,” Snow added about his group.

The attack of Devoe and Hennessey boosted the Blue Bison’s advantage to 9-5 at halftime.

Out of the break, the Blue Bison remained relentless. Hennessey recorded a hat trick to start the third. Chudziski potted his second score of the night.

“My defender ended up slipping a couple of times and I was able to get under him and got to the goal, same with my teammates,” Hennessey remarked on the wave of Shaker goals.

Devoe finished off his hat trick on a five-point evening that saw him register career point No. 100 on a helper.

“It feels awesome! A lot of work got put into it, happy it was an assist to one of my teammates,” Devoe remarked on sharing the milestone with his teammates on the postseason stage.

Blue Bison head coach Shawn Hennessey lauded praise on his group’s attack.

“Colin and Michael are kinda the guys that get us going. They’re the ones that get our offense moving in the right direction and it opens everybody else up,” coach Hennessey explained.

“Grame has been working very hard and he’s been doing all the right things. He was very opportunistic today,” coach Hennessey continued.

“But really Colin Devoe did an amazing job and he got us going just by being in control and being a field leader as a senior,” coach Hennessey added regarding his senior leader stepping up again.

While Crosetti netted his second marker of the evening for the Scotties, the Blue Bison defense stood stout in the second half, yielding only a Siracuse goal with 38 seconds remaining in the fourth frame.

Rounding out the scoring for the Blue Bison were a marker from Nick Mirabile and a hat trick rip that would’ve made Jake Piseno proud, by Teal.

“I was just having tunnel vision towards the goal and they weren’t sliding so I kept shooting,” Teal noted on his approach.

“We had some messy crease work there in the first half, they were getting some good force looks but then our coach talked us through an excellent adjustment at halftime and we were just able to catch all those looks and just stuff ’em,” Teal explained on how the Blue Bison defense clamped down.

“Our keeper played amazing, Michael Baccaro, I gotta credit him, he makes all the saves he needs to,” Teal added regarding the Blue Bison netminder and his whopping 17 saves.

Conversely, Sikoryak registered 10 stops in the cage for the Scotties.

Postgame, coach Hennessey commented on the complete victory by his team.

“It’s great. These boys earned every bit of what they got. I mean they took over, they did everything we asked them to do. It was a pleasure watching them play because when we asked them to go to work, they went to work today,” coach Hennessey said.

“That’s kinda where we try to hang our hat. Defensively we have a good scheme and the boys are really taking it and making it their own. So, it was nice to see them just receive the coaching and make the adjustment that we made at halftime and then we saw a really good output but they’re starting to work that on their own, they’re communicating and they’re making their own fixes in-game and you can’t replace that as a coach,” coach Hennessey noted regarding how his group locked it down.

Looking ahead, Shaker has a date with the No. 1 Shenendehowa Plainsmen on Wednesday, May 29, at 5 p.m., at Shaker High School for the title. The Plainsmen advanced to the championship round with a 12-4 defeat of the rival No. 4 Saratoga Springs Blue Streaks. It was that same score Shaker fell to Shenendehowa during the regular season.

Coach Hennessey commented on what he believes needs to happen to reverse those fortunes come championship Wednesday.

“Shen is tremendously good. Three-time sectional champs. They handled us pretty well in the first game,” coach Hennessey said.

“We just have to come and we have to play our style of lacrosse. We’re gonna have to make them uncomfortable. We know that they’re very talented. They’ve got kids that are returning for three and four years and they know how to turn the ball in the net,” coach Hennessey continued.

“So, hopefully our defense can again, take one more step and do this for another 48 minutes plus or whatever we need and if our kids just come and they do their job and they come to work, we’ll be in a good spot,” coach Hennessey added.