The Conard girls lacrosse team defeated Tollan, 17-1, on Saturday in West Hartford.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

The Conard girls lacrosse team improved to 8-0 on the season with a dominating overall performance at home on Saturday.

The Red Wolves were up 5-0 after one, and 9-0 after two, and seemed to be hitting on every cylinder. Starting in the draw, Conard controlled the game and turned those possessions into extend periods of play that resulted in goals.

On defense, senior goalie Maya Nanayakkara continued to impress. While she did not face a ton of shots, she had several big saves – including stopping a pair of free position opportunities. “She had four or five big saves and did a really nice job,” said Conard head coach Meg Cersosimo. “She is so consistent.” Nanayakkara held Tolland scoreless through the three periods she played on Saturday.

The Red Wolves have been a scoring machine with 127 goals scored in their eight games this season – including 53 over their last three games. The offense is scoring by committee, led by super junior Caroline Cersosimo. She starts things in the face-off where Jackie Capone and Ashley Gorman provide a solid 1-2 punch to secure the ball and start the offense.

Against Tolland it was Caitlin Walsh setting up the opening two scores for Conard. Twenty-nine seconds into the game she found Gorman cutting to the net for goal, and 18 seconds after that it was virtually the same play with Cersosimo converting the Walsh pass for a quick 2-0 lead. Freja Morris would hit the post for Conard and Gorman’s rebound did the same. Gorman would pick up her second on the day at 7:04 from the free position.

Playing down one didn’t slow the Conard offense as Kiara Foley converted at 4:04, before Cersosimo scored again at even strength for a 5-0 lead. Nanayakkara made it stand up with a pair of big saves to deny Tolland goals and momentum in the first.

Morris would not be denied in the second as she scored to make it 6-0, before Conard’s defense stepped in to smother Aubrey Peters as she looked to have found an open space to get off a shot.

The Red Wolves played a pack mentality on defense often sending two and three players to attack the ball carrier from Tolland, forcing several turnovers. “Today was a great opportunity to rely on our stick and body position play,” said the Conard coach.

The Red Wolves – along with Simsbury – are the class of the CCC. Both teams are undefeated and will face each other on May 5 at Conard. Cersosimo has worked to fill her non-conference schedule with games against teams in the traditionally strong conferences like the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference (FCIAC) and Southern Connecticut Conference (SCC). They have beaten Staples and Cheshire already this year along with Fairfield-Ludlowe and will meet Greenwich later in May.

Right now, Conard sits in fourth place in Class LL, behind unbeaten Darien as well as New Canaan and Wilton, and Cersosimo hopes playing strong teams from across the state gets her team ready for the post-season. “We were lucky to have those out of conference games early in the season,” she said. “Now it is fine tuning our game.”

Conard is not taking any game for granted and knows that things can change at any time. “We’re still trying to figure ourselves out, but they are extremely hard workers and very connected with each other on and off the field,” coach Cersosimo said of her squad. ‘We have to continue to take care of the little things to elevate our game.” That is just what her team did on Saturday.

With the score at 7-0 late in the second, both the offense and defense showed why this team is seeing the success they have seen so far those season. On offense, Cersosimo and Walsh worked a great two-person game on the eighth goal. Cersosimo found Walsh with a pass, then set a screen for her to go around. Cersosimo then rolled off the screen into empty space, Walsh hit her with a pass, and the junior forward made no mistake with it.

Nanayakkara would turn in another save on a free position chance by Michaela DiCicco with under two minutes to play. Then with 1:08 to go it was Cersosimo picking up the Tolland turnover and finding Walsh for the teams ninth goal of the half.

As the second half unfolded, it was more of the same for Conard. After Cersosimo made it 10-0, she played a role in her team’s 11th goal when she took a pass down low from Foley at the top, and then found Morris cutting to the goal for her second of the game. Gorman and Foley would each score again with Foley’s goal making it a lucky 13-0 lead with 2:23 to go in the third.

Coach Cersosimo would start making line-up changes in the fourth to get more minutes for her players. Morgan Lockward would get Tolland on the board 90 seconds into the fourth when she scored low on Avery Freiday on a free position. Conard’s Annabel Tracy would get that goal back when the defender – who was now playing up front – scored on a Grace Minahan assist. Cersosimo and Emilie O’Sullivan would score for Conard, and then Freiday denied Lockward on another free position try before Conard freshman Lila Montanari would close out the scoring with 2:15 to go in the game.

The Red Wolves are back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Northwest Catholic before hosting Simsbury in a much-anticipated matchup on May 5.

Game notes

• Conard Scoring: Cersosimo 5-3; Walsh 2-4; Gorman 3-1; Foley 2-0; Morris 2-0; Tracy, O’Sullivan, and Montanari 1-0.
• The Red Wolves have scored 10 or more goals in seven of their eight wins this year. They won their matchup with Staples 8-5 earlier this month.
• They have outscored their opponents 34-2 in the last 2 games and 53-7 in the last three.
• On the season Conard has outscored opponents 123-41. Their biggest offensive explosion came in their season opener with Amity when they scored 22 goals.
• Conard has not allowed any team to score in double digits this season. Surrendering 9 twice, 6 once, 5 three times, and 1 in two games.

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