Troy High sports review, through March 27

The spring sports season kicks into full swing today, with Easter vacation starting Friday.

Women's lacrosse:

Current record: 0-1.

A narrow loss to Hoosick Falls-Tamarac on Thursday demonstrated just how far women's lacrosse has come in such as short time.

Next: Another non-league game is on tap today vs. Ballston Spa. Then, it's a road trip to Albany on Thursday.

We just received notification from AD Paul Reinisch that Saugerties' visit on Friday for flag football was a scrimmage but was never designated as such on the Colonial Council website. The season officially begins today at Lansingburgh.

The rest of this week's schedule:

Tuesday: Tennis opens at home vs. LaSalle. Men's lacrosse opens under the lights and likely amid raindrops vs. Voorheesville.

Thursday:

Men's lacrosse @ Greenwich-Cambridge. Softball opens at Colonie. Tennis hosts Colonie.

Saturday:

Softball home opener vs. Saratoga.

We'll be back next Monday.

News & notes

Let's catch up on weekend action, first in Section II:

Saturday:

Women's lacrosse:

Averill Park 25, Hoosick Falls 11. 

Skaneateles 11, Shaker 10.

Men's lacrosse:

Archbishop Stepinac 14, CBA 6.

Burnt Hills 19, Schuylerville 6.

Columbia 16, Wahconah (Mass.) 2.

Johnstown 12, LaSalle 10.

Shenendehowa 7, Lakeland-Panas 5.

Niskayuna 10, Lincoln-Sudbury 4.

Cicero-North Syracuse 16, Bethlehem 6.

Farmingdale 8, Shaker 4.

It was inevitable, but no one expected it so soon.

UAlbany is saying good-bye to women's basketball coach Colleen Mullen, who will be at Rhode Island next season after 8 seasons at Albany, which netted 2 America East titles and a subsequent NCAA tournament appearance. The Lady Danes' 2nd half collapse this season may have played a role in Mullen's decision to depart.

New Orleans Pelicans assistant and Syracuse alum Mike Hopkins is out of the running to take over the men's head coaching job at Siena. The school made that announcement on Sunday, even though some media reports over the weekend had suggested they were so sure Hopkins would bolt from the NBA. I don't think so.

Sunday's college scores:

Baseball:

RPI swept Skidmore, 11-3 & 6-1.

Vassar split with Union, each winning by a 15-5 score in 8 innings.

UMBC 8, UAlbany 6.

Marist 13, Siena 6.

Softball:

UAlbany split with UMass-Lowell, winning the first game, 8-0, but losing the 2nd game in 8 innings, 4-3. Olivia DeCitise (Troy) homered to help the River Hawks in game 2 after sitting out game 1.

Siena swept St. Peter's, 5-1 & 7-1.

Skidmore split with Plattsburgh, losing the opener, 8-7, in 9 innings, then salvaging the nightcap, 12-4, in 5 innings.

Russell Sage split with SUNY Polytechnic, losing the opener, 5-2, then winning the 2nd game, 6-5.

Tennis:

RPI 7, Rochester 0.

College of New Jersey 4, Skidmore 3.

Water polo:

LaSalle 11, Siena 8.

Matt Gage (Broadalbin-Perth/Siena) pitched an inning on Friday & Saturday vs. the Yankees, giving up no runs in each case. Unfortunately for Gage and the San Francisco Giants, the Yankees swept the series.

Mets fans will have to rely on their cable guides to find out where they'll be able to watch Friday's game vs. the Giants, the 1st WPIX game on the schedule. WXXA & WTEN will farm out the game to a digital subchannel, either Cozi TV or Grit, since the game will start around 9:30 pm on Friday.

News & notes

 The other shoe dropped for Siena on Friday when Ryan Moesch decommitted, a move that had been speculated upon after Gerry McNamara left for Syracuse earlier in the week. In fact, all four recruits signed by McNamara for the 2026-7 season have decommitted.

New Orleans Pelicans assistant, Mike Hopkins has emerged, according to reports, as a front-runner for the head coaching job at Siena, which AD John D'Argenio is at the moment denying, likely waiting until after either the NCAA tournament ends a week from Monday, or the NBA gets closer to the postseason in mid-April.

Stay tuned.

After playing mostly at first base and pitching out of the bullpen the last two seasons, Olivia DeCitise (Troy) is now a starter for UMass-Lowell, and was in the circle Friday at UAlbany. That was the good news.

The bad? The Lady Danes walked off the River Hawks, 7-6, in 8 innings. DeCitise (9-7) went the distance, and took the loss.

The series resumes tomorrow with a Palm Sunday doubleheader, moved from today due to cold weather. First pitch at noon.

While wrestling fans are waiting to find out when Chris Jericho will get back in the ring, Jericho is returning to his other love, music.

Jericho and his KISS tribute band, Kuarantine, will make their 518 debut at the Cohoes Music Hall on Thursday night. In an interview with the Albany Times-Union, appearing today & tomorrow, Jericho said the band was formed during COVID 6 years ago. Fozzy, his other band, is on hiatus so that Kuarantine can finally go on the road.

In terms of wrestling, Jericho's AEW contract has been frozen, killing off speculation about a return to WWE. For now, anyway.

Due to deadlines, some of Thursday's high school scores don't see print until today. To wit:

Baseball:

Lansingburgh 10, Hudson Falls 0. The Knights host another Foothills Council team, Gloversville, today.

Softball:

Mohonasen 18, Schenectady 0 (5 innings).

Men's tennis:

Queensbury 5, South Glens Falls 0.

Friday's results, as of now:

Women's lacrosse:

Albany 13, Ichabod Crane 3.

Burnt Hills 14, Glens Falls 6. 

Men's lacrosse:

Mechanicville-Stillwater 13, Schenectady-Mohonasen-Schalmont 3.

The rest of Friday's college results:

Baseball:

RPI 6, Skidmore 4. The series resumes in Saratoga for a Palm Sunday doubleheader.

Marist 11, Siena 0.

UMBC swept UAlbany, 2-0 & 8-3.

Union 15, Vassar 5 (7 innings-mercy rule).

Flag football:

SUNY Brockport 26, Russell Sage 12.

Softball:

Skidmore 10, Potsdam 1 (6 innings).

News & notes

 After 21 years coaching freshmen, then the junior varsity, before being promoted to varsity head coach, succeeding Tony Dzikas, Paul Yattaw has stepped down from the latter at Shenendehowa.

That means Shen needs to again find a new men's varsity head coach in basketball. With 8 months before practice begins for the 2026-7 season, the district has plenty of time to sign a successor. Yattaw coached all three divisions this past season.

Stay tuned.

Thursday's high school scores:

Women's lacrosse:

Colonie 21, Ballston Spa 4.

Shenendehowa 14, Niskayuna 6.

Hoosick Falls-Tamarac 15, Troy 14. The Troy women, in their first varsity season, will win some games, but at least they gave a good accounting in their home debut.

Men's lacrosse:

Queensbury 20, Amsterdam 5.

Glens Falls 12, Columbia 7.

Schuylerville 15, South Glens Falls 13.

Scotia 16, Hudson Falls 1.

Colleges:

Softball:

RPI swept Oneonta, 3-1 & 5-4. The 2nd game went just 5 innings due to weather.

Union 9, North Central (Minnesota) 1 (6 innings).

Union 4, Lawrence 2.

News & notes

 The fallout from Gerry McNamara's departure from Siena to Syracuse has begun.

On Wednesday, it was reported that star guard Gavin Doty, the Saints' leading scorer, was planning to enter the transfer portal. Doty is from the Syracuse area, and already there is speculation he might follow McNamara to Syracuse.

The same can be said for Ryan Moesch, who committed to Siena in November, and currently, is at Cushing Academy in Massachusetts. Prior to transferring to Cushing, Moesch had been at Chittenango High, and had drawn interest from Syracuse a year ago.

Geographically, it all fits.

Stay tuned.

In other Siena news, the women's lacrosse team blew away Merrimack, 15-3, on Wednesday afternoon, to go to 6-4 on the young season (2-1 MAAC).

The rest of Wednesday's college action:

Softball:

Union 7, Oberlin 4.

UAlbany 10, LeMoyne 2.

Westfield State 10, Skidmore 6.

High schools:

Flag football:

Colonie 10, Kingston 7.

When the NY Phoenix open the USBL home schedule Sunday, kids will be admitted for free for all home games at M & T Bank Mohawk Harbor Arena. The Phoenix open at Frederick, Maryland on Friday before the home opener on Palm Sunday. Sounds like a good way to ger more families to the arena, especially on a Sunday afternoon.

News & notes

 With Gerry McNamara heading back to Syracuse, the search is on for a new coach at Siena.

The Albany Times-Union offered up a list of prospective candidates, but at the same time, reporter Mark Singelais isn't too keen on assistant coach Ben Lee's chances of being promoted. The Union College alumnus was McNamara's right hand man the last two years as they turned the Saints from a doormat to MAAC champions.

The other candidates:

Bobby Hurley (Arizona State): The Sun Devils are not renewing the former Duke star's contract, which expires in June.

Matt Langel (Colgate).

Luke Murray (Connecticut assistant under Dan Hurley).

Mike Hopkins (New Orleans Pelicans assistant). Hopkins, like McNamara, is a Syracuse alumnus.

John Becker (Vermont). It wouldn't be the first time an Albany nemesis came to work in the big town. The late Bill Musselman spent a couple of years with the Patroons in the late 80's. Becker & the Catamounts have been UAlbany's Achilles heel for years.

Of course, there's always the chance, and a friend suggested this to me, that Green Tech's Will Brown would merit some interest, but since he's been passed over for the Siena job at least a couple of times, it isn't likely at this point, but maybe later?

UAlbany ironman Amir Lindsey has entered the transfer portal. Lindsey appeared in 31 of UAlbany's 32 games this season as a sophomore, and led the America East in minutes played, averaging 37.4 minutes per game. Lindsey is the 4th player to enter the portal this off-season.

Tuesday's high school scores:

Men's lacrosse:

Queensbury 19, Hudson Falls 0.

Scotia 18, Broadalbin-Perth 2.

South Glens Falls 11, Colonie 7.

Mechanicville-Stillwater 10, Greenwich-Cambridge 2.

Burnt Hills 19, Columbia 3.

Schuylerville 10, Glens Falls 9.

Cornwall 18, LaSalle 4.

Women's lacrosse:

Ballston Spa 13, Albany 2. The Falcons cancelled a non-league game vs. Hoosick Falls to make room. League games take priority over non-league games.

News & notes

 Yesterday, we reported that Siena men's basketball coach Gerry McNamara was heading back to Syracuse.

Now, it's official.

WYSR in Syracuse is reporting that McNamara will indeed be the next coach of the Orange, after Adrian Autry had been let go earlier this month. Terms have not yet been disclosed.

On Friday, the NCAA hockey tournament returns to MVP Arena for the first time in 3 years. Bentley, Minnesota-Duluth, & Big 10 powers Michigan & Penn State make up the field.

Friday's doubleheader sees Michigan vs. Bentley at 5:30, and Penn State vs. Minnesota-Duluth at 9 pm. I'd imagine the Big 10 Network will carry these games. If they don't they'll likely stream on ESPN+.

The women's title has already been decided, with Wisconsin winning its 2nd straight title Sunday in beating Big 10 rival Ohio State, 3-2. Wynantskill native Maggie Scannell plays for Wisconsin. If that last name looks familiar, it should. Brother Owen played for LaSalle.

Troy High has moved the starting time of Friday's flag football home opener vs. Saugerties from 6 pm to 4:30 pm. This, I think, may have something to do with lighting issues at Picken Field, or scheduling conflicts involving the Sawyers. Thursday's women's lacrosse opener vs. Hoosick Falls-Tamarac also has a 4:30 pm start. Men's lacrosse is scheduled to play under the lights next Tuesday in their home opener vs. Voorheesville at 7 pm, so we'll see.