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Red Storm lax falls to Massena

SARNAC LAKE – Despite putting 19 shots on net, the Saranac Lake girls lacrosse team fell to Massena 12-4 Tuesday afternoon at Schroeter’s Field.

The Red Storm kept the pressure up for most of the game, but were unable to find the back of the net more than a handful of times.

In a surprisingly physical match, Massena’s Devin Kelly and Kyrsten Stone each tallied a hat trick while the play on the field was more even than the final score indicates. The Storm played solid defense and created lots of opportunities, but were outmatched by Massena’s scoring abilities.

Macy Fischer started off the game strong, ripping a cross-body shot on net that was deflected by Massena’s net minder Gisele Todd. Just a few minutes later, Fischer’s sister Ryley scored the first of Saranac Lake’s goals on an assist from Rylee Preston after a stick-on-body foul was called outside the Massena crease.

Less than a minute later, Rath found the back of the net for the Storm’s second score, and Ava Day followed that up with a goal with just 6:30 left in the first period.

The Red Storm started the second half strong, with Lindsey Rath intercepting a clear by the Massena goalie, but was unable to score. Rath continued the pressure throughout the second half, breaking up a handful of Massena passes and creating possibilities that Saranac Lake was unable to capitalize on.

Ryley Fischer again added to the Storm’s total with just under seven minutes left in the game, but it was too little too late.

Saranac Lake co-coach Shannon Muldowney said that the girls played well, but there’s room for improvement.

“The biggest thing now is to get them to start playing at their top notch at the beginning of the game rather than taking half a game to get settled into it,” Muldowney said. “(We’ve got) to be more game-like during warm-ups. I was telling them to treat the warm-ups like it’s the first half.”

“We really turned up the intensity when they realized it was do or die,” Chris Grant said. Grant coaches the team along with Muldowney. “We played with more intensity the second half, but we were also getting tired. They’ve got a deeper bench, so they’re not as tired. It’s been really hard to get into game mode and get moving.”

“To be honest with you, I didn’t think we played very well overall,” Massena coach Jeff Slack said after the win. “There’s a lot of little things that we should be doing at this point in the season. It takes us a while to get going, and we need to be able to put together a complete game. It’s always good to get a win, but I expect a little bit more out of us this late in the season.”

Saranac Lake next takes on Ogdensburg at home Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

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