LATHAM, N.Y. — For some, it was their first taste of being atop the mountain that is Section 2. For others, it was their third time in a row.
On Wednesday night, the Schuylerville High School boys varsity lacrosse team defeated Hoosick Falls/Tamarac, 17-7, in the Sectional Final at Shaker High School, to win the program’s third-straight Class D title.
Black Horses freshman attack Hudson Peck was one of the newcomers to the winners’ circle, after watching his older brother, Hansen Peck, help hoist earlier titles along the dynasty that has now stretched five of the past six seasons. On Wednesday, the freshman scored six and assisted on three others.
“It feels good. Only the first one for me, but it feels really good,” Hudson Peck said, postgame.
“I watched my old brother up here and then just grinded to get here myself, and it just feels amazing to win one for myself.”
Schuylerville junior attack Ollie Bolduc has been on the team since eighth grade and has been part of the last two Sectional championship runs. To help complete the three-peat, Bolduc chipped in four goals, with a trio of assists on Wednesday night.
“You look at Ollie; he’s just happy when we come out with a win. If he finished with one goal and one assist, all he cares about is just wanting to win and it’s great that we have so many alike minds on our team that are the same exact way,” Schuylerville head coach Morgan Cornell said, postgame. “All these guys are seeing the big picture. We don’t care who gets it in the back of the net, we want it in the back of the net, which is great and our younger guys are seeing that, and the culture that’s being built because of it is next to none.”
Bolduc scored two in the opening quarter to help Schuylerville take an eventual 5-1 heading into the second. While Hoosick Falls/Tamarac would net two of the first three goals of the following frame, Schuylerville closed the first half with two goals in the last 38 seconds of play, for an 8-3 advantage.
Black Horses senior midfielder Martin Flanders played a critical role in the half, as apart from his second-quarter goal, he also helped the team to a 10-4 edge in the face-off circle over the Wildcats.
“Martin dominated. He helped us win and won us the game, really. Just him dominating there, winning almost every face-off, really helped the team,” Peck said of Flanders.
“I mean, that’s kind of how we’ve tended to play this season. We usually come out pretty fast and then we hit a little lull and then we hit ’em again. I think that jumping out quick, for our guys, gives that confidence and that reassurance,” Cornell said.
Again, to start the second half, the Wildcats hinted at making it a game with another two goals inside the first 3:40 of the third quarter to make the score 9-5. The Black Horses closed the period on a 6-0 run to dispel the notion and take a 15-5 lead into the fourth quarter.
Peck scored three goals along the third-quarter surge and assisted on another.
“It’s all generated by my teammates. I just played off of them and they really created all the goals for me and I just hit the back of the net,” Peck said.
In the final quarter, Bolduc scored twice more for Schuylerville to maintain the double-digit win.
“With their zone, they were giving us these looks that are across-crease, 20-yard passes, early in our possession and the guys were like, ‘I want to make that pass right now,’ instead of running and developing our offense, which we started to do and that’s when we started hitting them and taking them again,” said Cornell.
Schuylerville may have entered the 2024 season as back-to-back, but both Cornell and Peck saw the group plenty motivated. For two consecutive seasons, the Black Horses have fallen in the NYSPHSAA Regional Finals, failing to get over the next hurdle after already conquering Section 2.
Next up for Schuylerville will be a trip back to the Regional Championship stage, this Saturday at 10 a.m. at Lynch Literacy Academy, in Amsterdam, to meet with Section I champion Pleasantville – the same team that eliminated the Blck Horses from States a season ago.
“Realistically, we need the ‘buy-in’ from the guys,” Cornell said, “and by the sounds of it, we got it.”
