Troy High soccer: wins and goals are missing

With five games left in the regular season, Troy High's women's soccer team is in worse shape than they were at this time a year ago. The Lady Horses have been shut out in four straight games, and five of their last six after getting blanked by Niskayuna on Saturday. Troy's lone win was also a shutout, as they beat Schenectady, 3-0, on September 13. At 1-10 overall (1-8 Suburban Council), coach Justin Haviland might be well advised to bypass the sectionals next month, as his team has had trouble cracking opposing defenses. It seems Schenectady might be the only team in the league worse than Troy, but, then.....!

On the men's side, coach Mike Murnane would like to just get a win. The Flying Horses dropped a 1-0 overtime decision at home to Niskayuna Saturday afternoon to drop to 0-7-2 on the season (0-5-2 in the league). Last year's leading scorer, Kevin Vargas, graduated in June, but Troy doesn't have anyone who's been able to step up to the plate and pick up the offensive slack. The once proud soccer program is on hard times, as even though pro soccer from Europe is readily available on cable television, kids today in the hometown don't seem too interested.

It's not helping, either, that the hometown paper isn't taking any chances on sending reporters to cover Troy sports of any kind, unwilling to further incur the wrath of district superintendent John Carmello, whose petty vendetta against the hometown paper has gotten to the point where there is no point. As long as Carmello is in office, it seems, the school's sports teams are not going to get the exposure they deserve, and it's his fault. He doesn't see it that way, and it's his loss.

For what it's worth, Troy's volleyball team has won 2 matches this season, but the match results are not consistently being sent to the press. The women's tennis team and the golf team are both winless. I don't think the Lady Horses have won a game yet on the court. I think, though uncertain, that the golf team has won just one meet in the four years they've been in the Suburban Council.

Thomas Paine once wrote, "these are the times that try men's souls", words that were immortalized musically by the Kingston Trio nearly 60 years ago ("M. T. A."). Truly, on Burdett Avenue, these are trying times, unless it's Friday night.