A season for the history books

Red Storm defeats Hornets to go undefeated in regular season

By LOU REUTER, Enterprise Senior Sports Writer
RAY BROOK — Saranac Lake coach Jim Hayden knew he had a talented golf team heading into this season.

But Hayden, or anyone else for that matter, had no way of telling just how dominant the Red Storm golfers would be this spring.

On Thursday at their home course in Ray Brook, the Red Storm finished as the unbeaten champions of the Champlain Valley Athletic Conference after defeating Plattsburgh in a showdown of two teams that had perfect records.

Not only did Saranac Lake’s golfers win the match, they did it convincingly, posting a 5-1 victory over the Hornets on a day when three Red Storm teammates carded rounds below par.

Freshman Patrick McHugh paced the Red Storm with a two-under par 34 and seniors Casey McHugh and Taras Gach followed with rounds of 35 as the Red Storm finished with a 10-0 record.

“I’ve never had a team like this,” said Hayden, who has been Saranac Lake’s golf coach for 30 years. “Out of a possible 60 points this season, we took 57 and 1/2 of them. That’s remarkable.

“I’m very happy for our kids, especially after the way things ended up last year,” Hayden continued. “We were one stroke away from winning two titles, and we’ve taken one of those titles back so far. We would love to get that second title next week at the sectionals.”

Long-time Plattsburgh coach Rusty Bigelow was equally impressed with the Red Storm golfers.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Bigelow said. “Believe it or not, Moriah had some great golf teams back in the 70s, but I don’t think they were anything like this Saranac Lake team.”

“Saranac Lake has great depth,” Bigelow added. “If we want to have a chance at winning next week at Westport, we can’t have any bad scores. I give Saranac Lake the edge. Even if one of their guys doesn’t have a good day, they still will be tough to beat.”

Cody Ecret and Dana Tarantelli earned the other two wins for the Red Storm in Thursday’s match.

Playing in the top two spots, Gach and Casey McHugh combined for five birdies during their one-under par rounds. Gach notched three birdies and defeated Ryan Kirkpatrick 35-41 in the No. 1 matchup, and McHugh birdied two holes in a 35-40 win over Ethan Votraw in the No. 2 contest.

Playing in the third spot, Pat McHugh had a career-best round at the Saranac Lake Golf Club to defeat Alex Pierce 34-40. McHugh recorded four birdies in his victory.

Ecret, Saranac Lake’s No. 4 player in the match, topped Mark Pellerin 40-43, and Tarantelli won the No. 6 match, defeating Michael Bennett 42-48. Freshman Michael Phelan suffered the only loss of the day for the Red Storm, dropping a one-stroke 40-41 decision to Plattsburgh’s Jordan Conroy in the No. 5 contest.

Plattsburgh dropped to 8-1 with the loss and will wrap up its regular season on Monday.

Saranac Lake’s golfers, meanwhile, will start preparing for the Section VII team and individual championship tournament, which takes place Thursday and Friday at the Westport Country Club. A year ago, the Red Storm lost the team title to Plattsburgh during a sudden-death playoff on the first day of the championship, but Gach won the overall individual title on day two. In 2006, Casey McHugh claimed the individual crown as a sophomore.

“We have a deep team,” said Casey McHugh, the Red Storm captain. “I’ve been with the team since eighth grade. On the ninth hole, it sank in that this was my last regular-season match. The years have gone by so fast.

“It was a fun season, and going 10-0 as a team was a nice way to finish,” he added. “Hopefully, we can add a sectional title next week. That would be great.”