Goshen’s girls lacrosse team certainly wasn’t showing any nerves at the start of its first-ever state tournament game.
The Gladiators scored the state Class C first-round game’s first three goals against Section 2 champion Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake. Senior Reilly Miller opened the scoring with two goals and sophomore Maggie Calzaretta added a third score.
Goshen would trail 6-4 at halftime and 10-5 with 14:12 remaining in the game. Burnt Hills-Ballston Spa would not score again. Through a 50-minute thunder delay, Goshen nearly finished off a comeback, falling 10-9.
“Every time in the sections and this game, it could have been our last game,” Goshen senior midfielder Hannah Welshoff said. “For us, seniors we had to play hard and give it our all because it could be our last time on the field and I feel like we all did that today.”
Coach Christina Maliwacki said her team had some opportunities to tie the game and had another chance taken away when one of her players was called for a phantom charge call in an attacking position.
“It wasn’t fair,” Maliwacki said. “With their home-field advantage, it wasn’t right with one of the calls the referee made. I’m disappointed in the system. We had the ball in front of the goal and the ref called a charge (on Goshen) when the girl didn’t move. It was just a bad call. We had the opportunity to tie it but the ref made a bad call.”
Welshoff, Kelly Fellenzer, Mackenzie Kurek and Reilly Miller all scored in the game and finished their careers with more than 100 goals. Abigail Lewis, Goshen’s other senior, cut Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake’s lead to 10-6 with a goal in the second half.