SARANAC LAKE – For the first time this season, Saranac Lake’s boys found themselves outmatched on the soccer pitch.

On Thursday at Schroeter’s Field, visiting Northeastern Clinton stung the Red Storm with two quick goals just before the end of the first half and tacked on another late tally in the second to claim a 3-0 victory in Northern Soccer League Division I action.

With the exception of a short time near the middle of the opening half and two runs after intermission that nearly resulted in a goal, Saranac Lake was on the defensive throughout the match. Despite being outgunned, the Red Storm were able to keep things scoreless until the Cougars notched a pair of goals in a 55-second span just before halftime and never looked back.

Rylee Hollister, Nick Duffy and Michael Mcleod each found the back of the net in the win, and Duffy and McLeod also chipped in one assist each for the Cougars, who improved to 2-1 in league play and 5-1 overall. Brady Lafountain made five saves to earn the shutout victory in goal for NCCS.

NCCS held an overwhelming 28-12 edge in shots, and had it not been for the outstanding play of Red Storm senior goalkeeper Nick Stevens, the visitors’ margin of victory could have been much larger. Stevens was playing in just his second full match at the position, and came up with some tremendous saves to keep things close on the scoreboard. He finished with 15 stops in the contest.

“Northeastern is very physical, and we haven’t seen that yet,” Saranac Lake head coach Josh Marlow said. “Today was one of those days where nothing could go right except for our goalie. I thought he played unbelievable and he kept us in it. That was the one bright spot. He saw some good shots today.”

Saranac Lake’s best opportunity to score before intermission came with about 15 minutes remaining in the half on a direct kick with the game still scoreless. On the play, senior Ethan Wood lined the ball up on the left side of the field, and sent a low pass in front of the net from just outside the penalty area that a teammate got a foot on but directed just inches wide of the net.

After surviving that attempt, the Cougars regained control, pushed the ball toward the other end of the field and kept the pressure on. They got their first tally from Hollister at the 37:42 mark, and Duffy then upped the advantage to 2-0 when he scored with 1:23 left in the half when he top-shelved a rebound following a shot off the post. Stevens got a hand on the hard shot but could not deflect the ball away from danger.

Trailing by two goals, Saranac Lake nearly cut the gap on two great runs in the middle stages of the second half – the first by JB Chapin and the second by Abraham Newton – but came up empty on both chances. McLeod then put the game away when he broke in all alone on Stevens after collecting a pass from Duffy and buried the ball with seven minutes left on the game clock.

“I thought we played well,” said Dale Hawksby, who is in his 26th season coaching the Cougars. “In the first half, I thought we controlled play for much of the first 15 minutes, went into a little bit of a lull, and then picked it back up again. During that time we hit a couple crossbars and a couple of posts – had some really good quality scoring chances. The kids stuck with it and got two nice goals to finish off the half. Any time you can do that, it’s a really nice bonus.

“Overall, I’m very pleased,” Hawksby continued. “We outshot them, and I told the kids, the more shots you get, the more chances there are for the ball to go in.”

Saranac Lake fell to 1-2 in league play and 2-3 overall. Despite the setback, Marlow expressed optimism as the Red Storm heads deeper into their schedule.

“They were winning the 50-50 battle,” Marlow said. “Their pressure was causing us to make mistakes we usually don’t make, and I look forward to seeing them next time. I think we’ll clean up our act and have a little bit of a comeback. This is the first game where we’ve been out-possessed. It’s a good learning experience for these guys. Our guys are tough, they’re resilient, and they’re going to pick up next week and march on.”

—

Northeastern Clinton 3, Saranac Lake 0

[TABULATED_DATA]

Scoring

First Half

1. NCCS, Hollister (McLeod), 37:42; 2. NCCS, Duffy, 38:37.

Second Half

3. NCCS, McLeod (Duffy) 33:00.

Shots: NCCS 28, SL 12

Saves: NCCS, Lafountain 4; SL, Stevens 15.