Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
Last year the Adirondack United girls hockey team went undefeated in winning the state championship. This year they lost five games, but the end result Saturday was the same: state championship.
In Friday night’s semi-final at the Nexus Center in Utica, Lillian Willis scored with 28 seconds left in regulation to defeat Beekmantown, 1-0.
In Saturday’s final United toppled undefeated Skaneateles 3-1, reversing a 3-1 loss to Skaneateles last month.
United is a merged team of players from the Queensbury, Glens Falls, South Glens Falls, Corinth, Hudson Falls and Saratoga Springs school districts.
After finishing the regular season 12-5, Head Coach Jeff Willis said of the state title, “It’s extremely satisfying. We didn’t have this gaudy record, and I don’t think anybody thought we were the favorite going into it. So we really had to work hard and grind it out.”
Skaneateles struck first Saturday, scoring a goal late in the first period.
But Adirondack stayed with it. Aubrey Lozier and Kady Duffy both scored in the second period. Gianna Marcantonio tallied an empty-netter with 40 seconds left.
Senior goaltender Katelin Archer finished the game with 38 saves for United.
Willis, who has coached Adirondack all three years of its existence, said, “I think our experience and being in the state championship game in the past really helped us.” The team regrouped after losing last year’s starting goalie and five position players.
“I knew this year was going to be a different team, a younger team,” Willis said.
He said they scheduled a more difficult lineup of games this year, including a trip to Massachusetts.
“It got us ready for what was in front of us,” he said.
Going into the state final four, Willis said he told the girls that “the team that puts together 90 minutes of good hockey is going to walk away with a championship, because everybody’s pretty even. And then they went and outworked the other teams.” — Ben Westcott
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