The Warriors continue to roll with a third straight victory to open the 2018 season.
By Marlon Pitter
Senior captain Griffin Smith tallied four points for the Warriors (three goals, one assist) as the Hall High School boys lacrosse team defeated Amity 7-4 on Friday night at Robert S. Chalmers Stadium in West Hartford.
“The offense is playing extremely unselfish lacrosse right now, and the defense showed up,” said Hall head coach Ben von Mayrhauser. “It was just an overall team effort. We were on tonight, and we didn’t allow any lulls to last too long. … I felt like we brought our A-game tonight.”
Barrett Kanaga opened the scoring with a goal at the 4:44 mark in the first quarter to put Hall up 1-0. The Spartans responded two minutes later with a tally from Ryan Hemstock, tying the game at one apiece.
Smith scored his first goal of the game to reclaim the lead for Hall with 36 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Hall held Amity scoreless in the second as it extended its lead going into halftime. The Warriors improved on faceoffs, which led to more possessions in the offensive zone that they capitalized on.
Max Congdon (two goals, one assist) scored on the man advantage at the 9:55 mark, creating a 3-1 lead for Hall. Smith completed his hat trick with goals at 8:41 and 3:19 – the latter a man-up goal – pushing the Warriors’ advantage to 5-1.
Graham Kennedy gave Hall its largest lead of the game with a goal at the 8:56 mark of the third quarter, but the Spartans showed no quit facing a five-goal deficit.
Amity scored three of the last four goals over the third and fourth quarters, but Hall was able to hold on for the win.
The win keeps the Warriors’ young season unblemished as the team improves to 3-0, while Amity falls to 1-1. von Mayrhauser attributed the team’s success to playing as a unit.
“It’s a focused group, but the thing about this group that keeps standing out to me is how unselfish they are,” said von Mayrhauser. “Their goal is to win games. They’re not worried about their own stat lines, and I think everybody – from the first guy in the game to the last guy on the bench – is just worried about that they can contribute to a team effort, and that’s huge.”
“‘Unselfish’ has been our word all year,” he added. “It’s a nice way to be able to describe your team.”
The Warriors look to remain unbeaten when they travel to RHAM (0-0) on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
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