Conard Boys Dominate Hall in Lacrosse

Hall hosted Conard on Thursday afternoon, but fell to the Chieftains on 15-7 in the Senior Day game.

Conard's Luke Garneau (#32) had a double hat trick in Thursday's game against crosstown rival Hall. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

Conard’s Luke Garneau (#32) had 5 goals in Thursday’s game against crosstown rival Hall. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

By Ronni Newton

Chalmers Field at West Hartford’s Hall High School was the site of a Conard vs. Hall lacrosse doubleheader Thursday, as the crosstown rival boys teams played at 4 p.m. followed by the girls contest at 6 p.m., with the home team losing both games.

Conard came out strong, with senior captain Luke Garneau putting Conard on the boards less than four minutes into the game on a goal assisted by Matt McCormick.

Halfway through the first quarter, Conard had scored four unanswered goals, with Jack O’Connor (assist by Bobby Iwerson), Jordan Dorfman (unassisted), and Andrew Hollerbach (unassisted) all finding the cage.

With 3:26 left in the first quarter, Hall’s Ben Harney scored, assisted by Kevin Carr.

The scoreboard remained unchanged at 4-1 until the 7:48 mark, when Conard scored another two goals in a 30-second span. At the 6:08 mark, Conard’s Jack Gerundo had an unassisted goal.

Just before halftime, Hall senior captain Hayden Souza scored, assisted by Kevin Carr, and the teams went into the break with the score 7-2 in Conard’s favor.

The third quarter was nearly all Conard, with another four unanswered goals by the Chieftains until Hall’s Will Witter (assisted by Souza) found the cage with just 20 seconds remaining in the quarter.

Garneau scored three times to start off the fourth quarter. A late game rally by Hall saw the Warriors scoring four goals – two by Owen Macca and two by Theodore Blaschinski.

“It’s Hall,” said Conard Head Coach Bill Condon when asked what he thought about the Chieftain’s game. “If you’re in town you know that there’s the regular season, there’s the post-season, and there’s Hall which is a season unto itself.”

Condon said that despite the team showing “a little bit of nerves,” they played well. Defensively, Conard’s Tyler Grainger did a good job of neutralizing Witter, Condon said. “We wanted to know where Hayden [Souza] was as well,” he said.

Condon was also pleased with the performance of Garneau, who ended the game with 5 goals and 2 assists. “He’s one of the hardest working kids. No one has worked harder on his game. It’s shoot, shoot, shoot,” Condon said.

“I thought we played really well,” said Hall Head Coach Sean Callahan. “They’re a really skilled team – one of the best in the conference and one of the best in the state,” Callahan said. “I’m happy with the way we played both sides of the ball.”

The final score was Conard 15-Hall 7. Conard’s Tim Fisher finished with 15 saves, and Hall goalie Alex Liu had 5.

Both teams head to the CCC playoffs next week, one of the first times in several years that both schools have qualified. Conard (10-6) and Hall (9-6) have both qualified for the state tournament, which will begin the following week.

Conard scoring: Luke Garneau (5); Jack O’Connor (2); Andrew Hollerbach (2); Jack Gerundo (2); Camryn Maynard (2); Jordan Dorfman; Henry Kneidel.

Hall scoring: Owen Macca (2); Theodore Blaschinski (2); Ben Harney; Hayden Souza; Will Witter.

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