It's all in the finish
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T.J. HOOKER
T.J. Hooker - thooker@poststar.com
Glens Falls’ Shea Homer, left, and Gloversville’s Victoria Bluvas fight for the ball during their Class B quarter final of the Section II Field Hockey Tournament held at the Morse Athletic Complex in Queensbury on Thursday. Glens Falls won the game 4-0.
QUEENSBURY -- Glens Falls field hockey coach Michele Venditto has worked her team on finishing plays near the goal until they can run them in their sleep.
The thing is, the Indians keep giving her reason to.
Despite a slow start and only a 1-0 halftime lead over seventh-seeded Gloversville on Thursday, second-seeded Glens Falls got things going the right way and defeated Gloversville 4-0 in a Class B quarterfinal of the Section II Field Hockey Tournament.
The Indians (12-4) will host third-seeded Ichabod Crane in a semifinal at 2:30 p.m. at the Morse Athletic Complex on Tuesday. The Riders topped Burnt Hills 2-1 in their quarterfinal Thursday.
"I told the girls, 'You can't make excuses,' " Venditto said. "When you average 25 to 30 shots a game and it's still not going in the goal, whose fault is it? It's not mine standing over here. You've got to have heart and the tenacity to keep after it until it goes in."
In the first half, that only happened once, when Hannah Hayward finished a play off a penalty corner by shooting the ball in from about 7 feet out.
But 3:22 into the second half, again off a corner play, Emily White put the ball between goalie Liz Hogan's legs to put Glens Falls ahead 2-0.
"I usually go to the post after I insert the ball," White said. "We're trying to get better; we've just got to get the ball in."
Glens Falls made it 3-0 with 19:52 left when Shea Homer fired a shot from outside and Kiley Sullivan redirected it into the goal. Sullivan did so again with 4:17 left off Pauline Searles' hard shot to close out the scoring.
In between, Brittany Daniels made two nice saves in Gloversville's only offensive flurry of the game.
"It usually takes us a half to warm up, which isn't good," White said.
Glens Falls outshot Gloversville 27-5 and enjoyed an 11-0 advantage in penalty corners.
"That's what hurts us; we're slow to get going," Venditto said. "That could hurt you because other teams come out fired up and get up on you. Like against Johnstown (in a 3-2 loss), they were up 3-0 before we knew what happened and they're not 3-0 better than us."
Venditto said she was more pleased with her team's play in the second half, including specific things like influencing opponents taking free hits, transitioning, getting into sets and cutting hard to the ball.
Gloversville (1-14) 0 0 - 0Goals-Assists
Glens Falls (12-4) 1 3 - 4
Glens Falls - Ki.Sullivan 2-0, White 1-0, Hayward 1-0, S.Homer 0-1, Searles 0-1.
Shots - Glens Falls, 27-5. Penalty corners - Glens Falls, 11-0. Goalies-saves - Piazza (G) 10, Hogan (G) 10; Daniels (GF) 3.
Posted in Sports, Field_hockey on Friday, October 30, 2009 12:30 am Updated: 12:40 am. | Tags: Field Hockey, Glens Falls, Gloversville
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