Sawed ‘em up, sent ‘em home

Red Hook boys lacrosse hasn’t been beating opponents by double digits this season, as they have in the past, and they haven’t been cutting apart non-divisional foes. They’ve suffered tough losses to big schools like Arlington, Kingston and Pleasantville; they’ve been bested by division foes, including Rondout Valley and newcomer Cornwall Central.

In spite of the setbacks, Red Hook is sitting on a 6-3 in-division record with a shot at the third or fourth seed in the upcoming Section IX tournament—and they lit up the Section IX Class B Saugerties Sawyers, 10-2, on May 10 in a brolic hit jamboree on Senior Night.

Early in the game, Red was far from its groove and, working with its platoon of undersized offensive players, was having a lot of difficulty contending with a big, aggressive Saugerties defense. Red Hook’s primary offensive weapon Tong Guerra netted his first goal at 9:05 and the Raiders came out of the quarter leading 2-1.

Saugerties was running ragged by the middle of the second quarter. In spite of scoring a goal at 9:57 by forcing Red Hook goalie Austin Loeffel to go for a crossbody save that he couldn’t grab, the Sawyers were running with an eight-man bench and had trouble keeping up with Red on offense. Loeffel went on to stop a three-shot offensive salvo from Saugerties in the fifth minute of the quarter, and Guerra flushed another two in the period, one through the goalie’s five-hole and another on a slick fake pass, to help put Red up 5-2 going into halftime.

Guerra scored again at 10:50 in the third, and was followed in scoring by Nolan Dalton at 9:19. It was around then that the Sawyers started laying some hefty hits and applying a few more stick checks than normal to the Red Hook attack corps. But it was too little, too late for the suddenly serious Sawyers. Guerra scored on a drive at :27 to end Red’s scoring campaign in the third.

Starting defenseman Mike Gemmel scored the first goal of his career in the fourth quarter of his last-ever home game. Gemmel grabbed the ground ball, took it deep into Saugerties territory, faked a pass and bounced a shot off the ground, sending the Red Hook crowd—and bench—into a cheering frenzy. His goal was the last of the game.

It was a nice way to end at home for Red, and definitely a momentum booster, but head coach Rich Saulino told The Observer that his team isn’t focusing exclusively on the post-season yet.

Saulino added, “As we head toward the end of the regular season and into the post-season, we’ll have some time to re-work some basics, but also look ahead to possible competition and get ourselves mentally ready for the playoff run.”

Sectional IX Class C semifinals will be on May 24 at Middletown’s Faller Field.

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