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LADY BLACK KNIGHTS SHINE BRIGHT ON SENIOR NIGHT
05/18/09
RFA 13 NEW HARTFORD 8-MHTS VISITS ROME
JEFF PEXTON/PHOTOS JEFF PEXTON
 Spring has sprung and amazingly, the 2009 High School sports regular season is coming to an end. Bittersweet, especially for the six seniors on the RFA Lady Black Knights Lacrosse team. On a bright, yet chilly night at RFA Stadium, the Lady Knights bid farewell to Kelsey Bird, Ariana Smith, Jessica Harvey, Abbey DePaul, Alex Towne and Leigh Nicholas, who will be graduating next month.
Senior nights in any sport are always emotional, but when its a Spring sport, its extra meaningful because it's "the last one" for athletes who play multiple sports during their senior year.
Tonight was no exception as the Lady Black Knights (5-11) fed off the energy of the opening ceremonies and took it to the visiting New Hartford Lady Spartans (3-7).
(Jessica Harvey, Alex Towne, Kelsey Bird, Ariana Smith, Abbey DePaul and Leigh Nicholas. The RFA Lady Black Knights Seniors! Best Wishes in all future endeavors!)
Despite the early RFA pressure, New Hartford's Theono Alvanos whipped her first shot of the game past RFA goalie Alex Towne to put the Lady Spartans up 1-0 at the 23:37 mark of the first half.
 Visit Perfect Game Imaging for a game photo album
After that, it seemed as though the field was slanted and the girls wearing white, black and orange were running downhill.  Oh, and a junior from RFA by the name of Erin Thomas was leading the charge!
Over a span of the next 10 minutes and 12 seconds, the Lady Black Knights scored seven unanswered goals, including three by Thomas, and one each from Ariana Smith, Abbey Depaul, Erica Foley and Taylor Pettinelli.
Spartans Attack Kimberly Miller was able to get one past Towne at the 2:11 mark to pull New Hartford within 7-2, which is the way the teams would head to the intermission.
(New Hartford's Carol Faber (7) has the ball checked loose by RFA's Abbey Depaul (15) during second half action.)
The second half saw the Lady Knights pick up where they left off as Abbey DePaul scored her second goal of the game at the 23:57 mark, putting RFA up 8-2.
Kayla Smith then zipped one home just 36 seconds later to put the Lady Knights up 9-2. It sure looked as if the route was on.Not so fast said New Hartford's Ashley Chanatry, who fought right back and scored just 16 seconds later to pull the Lady Spartans within 9-3.
(RFA Junior Erin Thomas (21) left, darts around New Hartford defenders Theono Alvanos (1) right and Kelsey Nackley (11) center. Thomas scored her 4th goal on the play.)
 The Lady Spartans responded with a slowed down, more deliberate method of attack on offense and gave RFA all they could handle. New Hartford's Alvanos scored two more goals (her 2nd and 3rd), sandwiched around another from RFA's Erin Thomas (her 4th) and with 19 minutes to go, it was 10-5 RFA.
The two teams went on to trade 3 goals each and the Lady Black Knights made this one to remember for their seniors, winning by a score of 13-8.
Erin Thomas was simply fantastic, netting 5 goals on the evening, while New Hartford's Ashley Chanatry tallied 3 times for the ladies in red and blue. Erica Foley added 2 goals for RFA.
RFA goalies Alex Towne and Danielle Famolaro combined for 11 saves, while New Hartford's Andrea Obeid stopped 15 shots.
(Lady Spartans Ashley Chanatry (14) left, turns up field as RFA'a Abbey DePaul (15) center and Katie Mott (14) right give chase.) Congratulations to both teams from My Hometown Sports on a great game and especially to the six graduating seniors for RFA. 
1 2 Total
New Hartford 4 4 8 Rome Free Academy 7 6 13
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