May 1, 2008
Girls lacrosse: WHS rebounds with impressive win
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If the fire wasn’t all there in last Friday’s 15-10 loss at Darien, there was no questioning the Wilton High girls lacrosse team had the fire — make that a flamethrower — in terms of intensity on Tuesday night.
The Warriors bounced back from their first loss by rolling over an up and coming Danbury team that was 9-1 and had beaten New Canaan last week.
The 16-6 win in Danbury definitely helped take away the sting of Friday’s loss — and showed coaches Cindy Wiseman and Ciara Thurlow just the Warriors are capable of when they play with intensity.
“We knew the team had some fight in them. We wanted to see them come out and just take it,” said Wiseman, whose team improved to 8-1 with the win. “We wanted to see girls who were hungry, not only to win, but for every groundball, every draw, every turnover.”
The coaches got their wish, as the Warriors controlled possession almost the entire game, dominated on face-offs, and forced the Hatters into turnover after turnover with aggressive, hustling team defense.
In the first half, in particular, the Warriors dominated every facet of the game — draws, groundballs, shots. Aggressive double-teaming rarely allowed Danbury to get the ball over midfield, and forced the Hatters into turnovers almost every time. Wilton controlled the ball at least 20 of the first 25 minutes of play.
The Wilton defense and midfield — Kelly Mendola, Leslie Stebbins, Laura Johnson, Claire Smith, Brooke Flanagan, Kyra Hansson, Lindsey Harkness, Paige Powell, Amy Drummond, Liza Rodiger — never let the Hatters get anything going.
The halftime score was only 8-4, despite a 22-5 edge in shots on goal by Wilton, which hit the post four times in the half and had seven shots stopped by the goalie. Drummond, Kacie Johnson, Smith and Faramkis each scored two goals in the first half.
Danbury managed to score on four of five shots and, despite being totally outplayed, was still in the game. And after Princess Livingston scored two goals midway through the second half, the lead was down to 9-6 with 16:31 left.
Wilton’s game-ending 7-0 run started off the ensuing face-off, which Drummond (team-high five groundballs) took right to the goal and scored just 10 seconds after the Danbury goal.
Forty seconds later, Kacie Johnson scored off a Virgina Curry feed, and a minute after that, Johnson scored again, this time off an assist from Farmakis.
In the meantime, Kyra Hansson kept getting draws to her teammates, with Kacie Johnson alone coming up with 12 face-offs. For the game, Wilton won 17 of 22 draws.
“Getting the draws is so key,” said Wiseman. “It’s all about possession. That’s one of the problems we had against Darien. We only got one of two draws the whole first half.”
Danbury picked up the pressure after halftime. But while Danbury was getting more chances in the second half, Wilton goalie Katie Gunts picked her game up, too, as she made seven second-half saves.
“It was a good, solid win,” said Wiseman. “There’s still things to fix, but they’re definitely going in the right direction.”
Kacie Johnson finished the game with six goals and three assists, while Farmakis and Drummond each had three goals and one assist. Smith had two goals and Brooke Flanagan had a goal and two assists. Lindsey Harkness also scored, while Paige Powell, Hansson and Curry each had an assist.
The Warriors’ 15-10 loss at Darien was disappointing, especially in the first half when they allowed the Blue Wave to run out to a big lead.
“They played like they didn’t expect to win. We got down by a lot quickly,” said Wiseman, whose team did rebound in the second half to play Darien even. “It was a little too late.”
Flanagan, Harkness and Drummond each scored two goals for Wilton, with single goals from Farmakis, Kacie Johnson, Smith and Chelsea Helms. Flanagan also had two assists, while Farmakis, Harkness and Kacie Johnson had one assist each. Gunts turned away 15 shots in goal.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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