SARANAC LAKE — The Saranac Lake girls soccer team left its home field Tuesday with area bragging rights after they claimed a 2-0 victory over Lake Placid.
Tyler Burth scored once and had an assist, to help Saranac Lake improve to 5-3 overall. Anika Wamsganz also scored for the Red Strorm, while Mar Carmona Guarido recorded an assist.
Saranac Lake netted a goal in each half to seal the victory, but they weren’t mistake free. Red Storm head coach Jason Wamsganz said his team did well enough to win.
“It’s one of those games with those wins that you feel good about, but you don’t feel overly good about because we did make a lot of mistakes,” he said. “It easily could’ve been 2-1 or 3-1 them at the end of the first half, we just had a lot of mental lapses and breakdowns.”
The Blue Bombers, which dropped to 4-5 overall, had plenty of scoring chances early in the contest but could never break through.
“We were unlucky with some and some we just overthought it,” Lake Placid’s head coach Heather Brewer said. “Based on our number of chances, we should’ve won that game.”
Last week, the Blue Bombers played three games and two of those contests went into overtime, including a 1-0 double overtime loss to Northern Adirondack.
“This is a team where — a lot of games this year — we’ve played with nine or 10 (players),” Brewer said. “I always give them credit because they come to practice every day even though they’re banged up. I really like this team and I really wanted to win for them because it is a rivalry game. We’re going to try and get them at home and make sure we finish our chances.”
Anika Wamsganz opened up the scoring for the Red Storm around the half way point of the first half on an assist from Burth.
After intermission, Burth buried a goal of her own on a pass from Carmona Guarido with 22:30 left in the game.
“When Saranac Lake got the second goal, they were definitely energized after that,” Brewer said. “I think if we had finished a chance early we would’ve had that energy with us.”
Saranac Lake goalkeeper Emma Akey earned the shutout with seven stops. Meanwhile, Lake Placid’s Emma Clark recorded six saves.
“(Clark) had a good game and we had a couple breakdowns defensively,” Brewer said. “But more than anything as a team, we just didn’t finish the ball today. Saranac Lake had less opportunities, but they finished and that happens some games.”
The girls soccer season is more than halfway through, and so far Saranac Lake has already posted a better record than years prior. Through the first eight games of last season, the Red Storm girls were 2-5-1.
“We’re scoring a lot more goals this year, which is a good thing,” coach Wamsganz said. “I think we’re in a good place moving forward. We just can’t become complacent with what we’ve done in the first half of the season and not back it up in the second half of the season.”
Saranac Lake will host Northern Adirondack at 4:30 p.m. today, while the Blue Bombers will travel to Moriah for a match at 6:30 p.m. today.