Sports
Capitol Victory: Ram girls veto Senators

May 16, 2008

Kristin Wood has only been the head coach of the New Canaan High girls’ lacrosse team for two seasons, but in that relatively short span of time, the Rams have taken long strides in a positive direction.

Tuesday afternoon at Dunning Field, the Rams gave their coach a perfect birthday present and took another leap forward with a 14-11 victory over FCIAC playoff contender Brien McMahon. New Canaan led 11-3 at halftime and the Senators staged a furious rally in the second half, but the Rams were able to hang on.

For the players, this season’s successes come from the confidence their coach has shown in them.

“Every game, she comes in and expects the most from us and in the end, we want to show her what we can do,” senior tri-captain Sydney Hare said. “She has faith in us.”

The victory over McMahon assures the Rams (12-3 overall, 9-3 FCIAC) of a top five seed in the FCIAC tournament, which begins with the playdown round on Tuesday, May 20. New Canaan was fifth following Tuesday’s games, but if McMahon (7-4 FCIAC) defeated Danbury (7-3 FCIAC) Wednesday, the Rams would move up to fourth.

In any case, New Canaan will likely play in the four-five game, either on the road at Danbury or at home against Danbury or McMahon.

A game against Danbury would mean a chance to avenge a 17-16 loss to the Hatters on April 22.

“I’m excited (for the playoffs),” Wood said. “We would like to see Danbury again and I think we can come out a little tougher. That one stings the most.”

“We feel good — we’re confident,” Hare said. “The biggest thing was the Danbury loss, which we think shouldn’t have happened. And we feel we should have beaten Greenwich, so we’re looking forward to coming back to play those teams again and showing them a complete game from us.”

New Canaan took care of business during the first half against McMahon, scoring the first four goals and dashing out to a 11-3 halftime lead.

“We were getting ourselves open and connecting on offense and through the midfield,” junior attack Jenny Simpson said. “We had some great clears from Maddie up the field and everyone was working hard to get open. We played well together.”

“They knew it was big games and they were ready to show them that they weren’t ones to be messed with,” Wood said. “We’ve been working on a lot of stuff in transition and they looked good in the first half doing that stuff.”

Anjalie Christie netted the first goal at the 2:49 mark, and that was followed by goals from Alexandra Crerend, Veronica Lizzio and Christie again, as the Rams took a 4-0 lead in the first 13 minutes.

The Senators’ Bebz Eydt snapped the shutout at 15:33, but Crerend won he ensuing draw, charged the net and scored for a 5-1 lead.

McMahon’s Katie Hammer sandwiched two goals around a tally from New Canaan’s Kacie Pippitt to cut the deficit to 6-3 with 4:12 remaining in the half.

But the Rams scored five times in the final 3:28 before halftime and seemed in control of the game at 11-3.

McMahon, however, had some life left and came out firing in the second half. Devon Satnick scored at 2:32 and began a 5-0 run which reduced New Canaan’s lead to three at 11-8 with 19:30 still to play.

Madonna Wadolowski gave the Rams trouble in the second half, as the Senators’ speedster scored four goals in the final 22-plus minutes.

“It was the fastbreaks,” Wood said. “In the first half, we got every draw control, we were smart with the ball and even if we didn’t make the shots, we came up with the rebounds and the misses. In the second half, we lost a lot of the draw controls and we were making tough decisions on offense and they took advantage of that. That’s what good teams do.”

The play of goalie Kelly McFarlin, who collected 14 saves, also played a big part in the Senators’ rally.

“She was very, very talented,” Simpson said. “It kind of threw us off but we still made enough goal shots to pull out the win. She played well and we adjusted with some great shot placement and cuts.

But New Canaan’s defense, led by tri-captains Hare, Kaitlin Purdy and Brooke Atherton, Hailey Dray and goalie Maddie Mauk (8 saves) held the Senators when things got close.

Ahead by just three, New Canaan responded with back-to-back goals by Simpson and Erin Fessler at 10:42 and 12:39. Simpson bounced her goal in after a feed from Pippitt behind the net, and Fessler made a quick move past the defense and scored inside the right post to make it 13-8.

Wadolowski came back with a tally with 5:17 remaining, but Fessler netted her second goal 1:38 later.

Wadolowski and Leia Cadotte scored twice in the final 3:26 for the final scored of 14-11.

Crerend finished with a team-high four goals and one assist, Pippitt added three goals and two assists, Fessler, Christie, and Simpson each had two goals, Lizzio scored once and Meg Boland had an assist.

For McMahon, Wadolowski had four goals and an assist, Hammer had three goals, Cadotte had two goals, and Eydt and Satnick each scored once.

For New Canaan, it was a good showing, as the Rams were strong in the first half and answered the bell when they were threatened in the final 25 minutes.

“We came out a little slow in the second half and they are a comeback team, but we were able to keep our composure which was really good in the end,” Hare said. “As long as we can keep doing that, we’re going to go far.”

NC tops Staples, Ludlowe
Boland and Crerend led the scoring as they each had six goals and two assists in the Rams’ 23-6 win over Staples last Tuesday in Westport. Simpson added five goals and two assists, Pippitt had two goals and one assist, Fessler had two goals, Lizzio had one goal and one assist, Christie scored a goal, and Erin Markey had an assist. Mauk made one save, while Charlotte Spitzfaden collected five.

Simpson had eight goals as the Rams easily dismissed the Ludlowe Falcons, 19-5, last Friday in Fairfield. Crerend added four goals to the rout.

© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers