ALBANY — The Guilderland girls’ lacrosse team has been champions five different times. On Wednesday night, the Dutch lost like champions.

Trying to defend yet another Class A championship, Guilderland had a shot to tie the game with Shaker in the final 25 seconds of regulation play. Rebecca Golderman fired the ball towards the net from eight meters, but the shooting lane was shored up, and the ball deflected hard the other way.

The whistle sounded as the ball rolled away. Golderman’s stick may have made contact with Aubrey Conti’s head, and Conti lay on the turf. Conti eventually walked off, and Golderman sat in the penalty box.  

Shaker ran off the remaining time, and clinched its second title in three seasons. Sure, it was a disappointing moment for the Guilderland players, but they walked gingerly to the bench, and then accepted their runner-up patches.

Guilderland senior Morgan Hardt, now finished with the Dutch after four seasons, showed no signs of sadness, and even cracked some smiles. If she felt anything, it was pride.

“This team was the best group of girls to spend my senior year with,” said Hardt after Wednesday’s 8-to-7 loss to Shaker at the University of Albany; she scored two goals. “I won’t remember a certain play, or a certain game; it’s just the people I spent it with.”

Before the Guilderland players left the field, Hardt led the team for one last “Lady Dutch” chant. Each player raised her stick and exclaimed the Dutch name with dignity.

“I’m happy with our season,” Hardt said. Guilderland had lost three Suburban Council games early in the season — one to Shaker is double overtime — but bounced back to make the Class A finals for the eighth consecutive year.

“We learned to have pride in every play,” added Hardt. “Going out there, especially in sectional play, knowing that it could be your last game.”

Indeed, Wednesday was the end for Hardt and her six sister seniors. Again, no Dutch players seemed too miserable.

Guilderland Head Coach Carrie Britt, in her first season at the helm, said that the Dutch started taking better care of the ball as the season went along, but on Wednesday, the team reverted under pressure.

“They need to settle down and really work for the good shot,” Britt said. “If we had done that consistently throughout the game, I think we would have been up by three [goals], instead of down by one at the end.”

Guilderland had built an early 3-to-0 lead on goals by Cara Quimby, Katie Becker, and Hardt, who said she was all “jazzed up” after that, but Shaker came back. The Bison got goals from Maeve Lennon, Carlie Maxwell, and Julia Lennon, which left the Dutch with a 4-to-3 lead at halftime.

“I was excited, but you can’t give up that early,” Hardt said. “Nothing is ever in the bag.”

Shaker gained momentum in the second half, scoring two goals out of the gate. Senior Julia Lennon scored three of her four goals in the second half, including one to tie the game at 7-to-7, and the game-winner with less than one minute remaining.

Hardt once played on an Under Armour lacrosse team with Lennon, who made decisive moves on Wednesday.

“She’s a great player, great kid all around, but she just has that — when she draws in and draws out — that ability to move the defenders and read that defense,” said Hardt. “No matter how many great players you have, it’s not just about the great players who perform on the field; it’s everybody. If someone isn’t putting out their full heart, full effort, then you’re not going to come off with it, you know?”

Meeting in the Class A finals for the third consecutive year, Guilderland and Shaker are obvious adversaries. Britt used to be Shaker’s head coach.

“It’s been a huge, huge rivalry, and it’s been vicious, but, honestly, this year, it’s two really good teams,” Shaker Head Coach Kara DePaula Lynch said. “We didn’t come into this angry; it’s just two really good teams fighting for a win. It wasn’t a grudge match.”