South High rallies to defeat Johnstown

By BILL CAIN, The Leader-Herald
JOHNSTOWN — Johnstown was not able to body up on South Glens Falls in front of the crease and the Bulldogs took advantage.

South Glens Falls got its players to start moving more on offense and pulled away from the Sir Bills for a 15-9 win Friday.

“We came out a little flat,” South Glens Falls coach Scott Comstock said. “We had to recognize what they were doing on defense and see how they were sliding. We needed to see who was open and make that pass.”

Johnstown trailed 7-5 at the half, but tallied the first goal of the third quarter on an unassisted David Sagan score. The Bulldogs ran off the next six, however, pulling ahead comfortably.

Johnstown coach Eric Laugen said he was unsure why his defenders were granting South High such easy access to the front of the crease.

“That’s something I addressed with them throughout the game,” he said. “We weren’t sliding with our body. They had some quick guys and we had a tough time keeping up.”

The game started the way the previous meeting between the two teams ended — tight.

At South Glens Falls, the Bulldogs won a sudden-death overtime decision. In Friday’s game, the teams traded goals through the first half. Johnstown scored two, South High scored two. Johnstown two, South High two. JHS one, SGF one.

Comstock said he was unhappy with his defense in the first half during all the back-and-forth.

“We didn’t really play good defense at first,” Comstock said. “We made a few changes, though, and we went out and executed. We improved as the game went on.”

The Bulldogs got five goals and an assist from Mark Leeson. Chris Lee, Tim House and Andrew Leege all scored twice, with Lee adding an assist and Leege two. Chris Mack assisted three times, Taylor Petty had a goal and an assist. South High (6-7 overall, 5-5 Foothills Council) got a goal apiece from Adam Barber, Brett LaFarr and Mike Peck. Scott Morgan made 10 saves.

Johnstown (4-10 overall) got three goals apiece from Sagan and Steve Gifford, with Gifford assisting once. John Roth scored twice, Phil Satterlee once and Andrew Rubscha assisted once. Scott Ford made three saves and Ethan Tinker made two.

Johnstown made a late push, but couldn’t finish on a couple occasions or take advantage of a three-man advantage.

With 2:55 left to play, the Sir Bills had a three-man advantage for 16 seconds, a two-man advantage for 44 seconds afterward, and a man advantage for the next minute. They managed two shots in that time and just one on frame.

The Sir Bills played Friday’s game with three reserves. Laugen said he has noticed a drop in the team’s endurance, not only because of the season winding down, but because of the extra minutes everyone must play.

Johnstown will play at Troy and host Amsterdam next week, but is finished with Foothills Council play. Laugen said he is hopeful the Sir Bills will have a deeper roster by the time the regular season ends and sectionals begin.

“These games next week aren’t the most important games,” he said. “I’m hoping to get some more of our guys back for the playoffs.”