STILLWATER -- There is a reason Burnt Hills has dominated Class A.
It's very simple. If you don't give up a goal, you can't lose.
The Spartans have not been scored on in their last 720 minutes of sectional play, which includes Friday's 1-0 victory over South Glens Falls in the Section II Girls Soccer Tournament at Stillwater. They rode Elise McAllister's first-half goal to their 15th straight sectional victory and their fifth straight Class A title.
South High came closer than many teams have, playing even with Burnt Hills for stretches of Friday's game. But time and again, the Bulldogs were turned away as they tried to get through the Burnt Hills defense.
"They have a great back line,'' South High coach Stephen Philo said. "We just couldn't penetrate. And the few times we did penetrate, we couldn't get anything on the shot, or the goalie made a couple of nice punches and we couldn't get anything out of the air. These things happen. That's soccer.''
Burnt Hills played strongest early in the game, and that's when the Spartans scored the game's only goal.
The Spartans almost scored three minutes into the game off a corner kick. Nicole Shively's header hit off the bottom of the cross bar and the defense cleared the ball.
But Burnt Hills got another corner kick off the clear. The ball came down in a crowd and was kicked toward the goal. A defender stopped it, but Elise McAllister came forward to punch the rebound into the goal.
Burnt Hills carried the play for a while after that before South High gradually got back on track.
"I don't know if it took the wind out of our sails, but notoriously we're a slow-starting team,'' Philo said. "We've been able to escape every time and dominate the second half. Tonight we couldn't escape.
"That one goal was all the difference. For the latter part of the first half and most of the second half, it was even play, and we even had a few chances. That early goal really got to us tonight.''
The Bulldogs didn't have a lot of dangerous scoring chances. Perhaps the best one was a moment late in the first half when a ball briefly skipped past the Burnt Hills goalie.
South High's Ashley Abrams used her flip throw-in several times, but unlike recent games, the Bulldogs weren't able to turn one into a goal. The ground was a little damp, making the flip-throw less effective, and few of them came within 10 yards of the corner flag.
The Bulldogs, who won the Foothills Council this year, finished the season at 16-2-1.
"It's been a great season,'' South High midfielder Kelsey Fish said. "We worked really hard ... we achieved a lot of our goals ... we just fell short tonight.''
South High (16-2-1) 0 0 - 0
Burnt Hills 1 0 - 1
Goals-Assists
Burnt Hills - McAllister 1-0.
Shots - Burnt Hills 11-6. Corner kicks - Burnt Hills 6-3. Goalies-saves - McNutt (BH) 4; Smith (SGF) 8.
Posted in Girls on Saturday, November 7, 2009 12:25 am
© Copyright 2009, The Post-Star, Lawrence & Cooper Streets Glens Falls, NY | Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
