SCHUYLERVILLE —The Carolina blue jerseys worn by the Suffern girls’ lacrosse team Tuesday evening seemed to be an eerily appropriate color scheme as the second half of the Mounties’ Class A girls’ lacrosse regional contest against Saratoga Springs unfolded at Schuylerville High School.
This was not men’s basketball being played and Dean Smith was not coaching Suffern, yet the glory days of when Smith coached his North Carolina Tar Heels before the shot-clock era began when some of his best team’s employed the ‘Four Corners’ offense to maintain a lead was the same tactic Suffern employed vs. the Blue Streaks.
After grabbing a four-goal advantage with 13:07 left, the Mounties spent the vast majority of the remainder of the contest making Saratoga Springs chase them all over the field. Despite allowing two goals on free positions late by junior star Carly Wise, Suffern managed to hold off the Blue Streaks to register a 9-7 victory to advance to state quarterfinal play Saturday.
“I really wish there was a shot clock in high school lacrosse. That would be really nice,” Saratoga Springs first-year coach Jennifer Furze said.
Wise, a Clemson commit who was named an All-American as a sophomore in 2022, tallied the third of her four goals with 7:03 remaining. The Mounties won the draw and spent more than four minutes with possession before turning it over. Wise tallied her final goal with 1:47 left and proceeded to win the faceoff by outleaping two defenders. The Blue Streaks turned it over on an attempted feed to Wise with 45 seconds left and Suffern passed it around to exhaust the remaining time.
“It is about keep away at that point,” Furze said. “It is not about the girls not having enough skills, it is just a matter of time.”
Even though Saratoga Springs managed to advance to the Class A sectional final last spring after…
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