Last season wasn’t supposed to end the way it did for the Saratoga Springs High School varsity field hockey team.

Ranked No. 2 in the Section II, Class A tournament, the Blue Streaks were feeling pretty confident against the No. 7 seed in Guilderland, but a 1-0 upset ended things prematurely.

Coach Jo-anne Hostig has just four players remaining from that team, so it was a different look Saratoga in Wednesday’s season opener at home versus the Flying Dutchmen.

The veterans made sure the youngsters knew how important  winning the game was, while Hostig reminded all that this is a brand new season and last year was last year. The dual strategies worked as the Blue Streaks prevailed with a 4-1 victory.

“It was a hard loss last year. We really wanted to come back strong,” senior co-captain Emily Riley said. “It was a good win. I think everybody was a little nervous, but we pulled through and I’m very proud of them.”

Riley, who led the team in scoring last year, notched her first two goals of the season in the first half.

“I just had my stick down and I was there. It was a little scrappy and we don’t always have those kind of goals,” Riley said.

After falling behind 1-0, Saratoga (1-0) squelched the butterflies and started playing like the team they’re capable of being.

With 13 minutes, 23 seconds left in the first half, senior forward Maddie Zanetti found Riley near the box for the tying score.

With 1:31 to go, senior co-captain Caitlin Stephen scored on an assist from junior Taylor Matties that gave the Blue Streaks a 2-1 lead.

Riley added an insurance goal with 17 seconds left.

In the second half, sophomore forward Mackenzie Knight scored the final goal on an assist from junior Miriam Frost. Senior goalie Erin Delancey had four saves.

“They (Guilderland) had one (game) before us, but after a couple minutes, we got it together. We are very young, but we looked very organized after we got it going,” Hostig said. “I give our team a lot of credit for coming back after the first goal because inexperienced, anything could’ve happened and we chose not to do that.”

With just the four returning players, Hostig has plenty of big shoes to fill.

Forward Ashley Loviza, who graduated last spring, is now playing Division I field hockey at the University of Connecticut. She finished her high school career third in Section II history in assists and was a state first-teamer.

Also gone are strong defenders Breanne Lee and Julie McPhillips, along with goalie Emily Koella.

“We’ve got a lot of players that weren’t in key roles and now they’re stepping in and they’re ready to step up,” Hostig said. “It’s just a matter of how soon we gel together and how quickly we do it. It’s okay not to have it too soon as long as we’re doing it at the right time.”

The right time of course will be in league play and then hopefully for the Blue Streaks, in sectionals.

 This is a speedy Saratoga team that should give the opposing defense fits and test the conditioning of their opponents.

Though it’s always tempting to look ahead on the schedule, the Saratoga players are disciplined and taught to only worry about the next game and the tasks at hand.

“I think for now, we need to just keep practicing day to day. We’re going to grow from game to game skill wise and passing wise,” Riley said. “I think we’ll be fine.”

The Blue Streaks return to action today (Friday) at home versus Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake. The action is set to kick off at 4:15 p.m.