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Printed From Acorn-Online.com Sports
It was more like an Eastern seaboard lightning bolt of brother-sister synchronicity that struck for the Cook family of Darien, when Blue Wave hockey team senior JT Cook and big sister Haley, a sophomore lacrosse player for Davidson College, each fired up the biggest goals of the season for their respective teams last weekend. Both were true doozies. Haley sank the deciding marker in a 6-5 upset victory over Division I Brown down in Davidson, N.C. on Sunday, after JT put in the biggest goal by a Blue Wave hockey player, ever, over its biggest rival, ever, New Canaan, as Darien beat the Rams 2-1 for the FCIAC crown in Stamford the night before. It was the first time the Wave had ever defeated NC in the title match. Haley’s shot to the back of the lax cage in Davidson didn’t quite shake the earth the way JT’s goal made the rink shudder in Stamford... Or did it? “This is one of the biggest wins in our school’s history,” said Davidson coach Betsy Economou, whose first-year assistant is Wave girls lax all-time leading scorer and former Richmond Spiders top scorer Caroline McGuire (DHS 2002, Richmond ’06). “It was a huge upset in womens lacrosse.” The Bears (1-2) were ranked 24th-in-the-nation going into the game. “You are talking kids that got overlooked — that no one wanted to recruit,” Economou said of her hustling bunch who improved to 3-2. “We knocked off an Ivy League team — last year we were beating teams that we had no business being in games with — fully funded programs to our barely funded program. “I only have six subs, and these teams have 20 kids on their bench.” Likewise, although the Wave hockey team was the No. 1 seed and the team to beat in the FCIAC, in general DHS, and JT in particular have not been known as offensive titans. His goal was churned up through the drudgery of the forecheck where he bore down on an NC defenseman looking to head out of his zone. “Really I just tried forcing him wide,” said JT of his third period steal that ignited the winning goal vs. NC. “Because I had support from JD Juterbock, I was able to force him right to (Juterbock), and we both got the stick on the puck and caused the turnover.” And the puck turned up on JT’s stick. “It came to me and the second I saw all that ice in front of me my eyes just widened so much,” JT said. “Then it was just really a blessing to be able to go in there and finish. “I mean, that’s just the style of hockey our team plays — hard working, blue collar, just trying to outwork our opponent. We’re not always the most skilled team to go out there, but we will work to get it done.” That’s the way it was done, and that is an echo bound to be heard interstate and understood well by big sis. “We wanted to put the tempo of the game out of their hands and into our hands,” said Haley of stealing the game away from the Bears. “We knew they liked to push the ball hard and go. And so what we did, is when we had the ball we knew we needed to take some time off of the clock before we could go to goal. “So in every possession that we had we looked to stall, just to get them out of their comfort zone.” How discomforting if you were not Davidson.
Once upon a time in a boxing ring of old you’d call this a rope-a-dope. “And so the whole game every goal we scored was the same way,” Haley added. “It was by making them creep out and play us.” And Brown, got played too. “They were out of their defense and they were playing our game,” Haley said. “It was a total team effort.” From point blank range Haley, who shoots left, changed hands and froze Brown senior goalie Melissa King (six saves) into a stuffed bear pose — then quickly released a hip-high shot, putting the winner behind her with 4:03 on the clock for a 6-5 lead. “We stalled for a minute or two and then started to break into our faster paced offense,” Haley said. “I got the ball on the corner of the eight and managed to get inside and roll back and get off a quick righty shot. “It was really just a two-second thing, but it had been built off of something that was just so well executed by our entire offense.” Becky Horton had the assist to set up what was the Wildcats’ third straight goal in the final 25 to reverse a 5-3 deficit. “I’m lucky that I was the one who got to put the ball away,” Cook said. The Wildcats improved to 3-2 with the win in what was the third straight victory that came off of the stick of Haley Cook. Because she has in fact had the game-winner in each Wildcats victory. “We’ve looked to Haley — you know she is a lefty — and she is such an under-rated midfielder,” Economou said. “But I think a lot of people are keying in on her now." She leads the team in points with 14 on 12 goals and two assists. “She’s got great speed, she’s got an extremely hard shot,” Economou added. Haley leads the offense in ground balls with 10, is tied for the lead in free position goals and is second in draw controls. “Haley understands the game and is an extremely smart player,” said Economou. © Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers |
