The Warriors could not duplicate their winning ways in their home opener against Glastonbury.
By Marlon Pitter
While the weather was a bit more pleasant for the Warriors in their home opener than it was for the team’s first outing, the result was not as kind.
Playing its second game in as many days, the Hall High School girls lacrosse team dropped a 10-3 decision to Glastonbury on Wednesday night at Robert S. Chalmers Stadium in West Hartford.
“What killed us is the unforced errors,” said Hall head coach Meg Chaplin. “We played good defense. We got some good turnovers. We got some good stops, but you can’t play [50] minutes of defense. You’ve gotta get the ball to the offense. I did think our offense recovered a little in the second half. … We cannot throw the ball away. That was what killed us. Too many unforced errors.”
Marina DiPiazza did most of the scoring for Glastonbury (1-0) with four goals on the evening, all coming in the first half. Tori Hurley added four points (one goal, three assists) for the Tomahawks.
Glastonbury jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 4:05 of play with two goals from DiPiazza. Avery Polk answered for Hall (1-1) with 17:54 remaining in the first half to cut the lead in half, 2-1.
DiPiazza completed her hat trick, scoring with 14:32 on the clock to put Glastonbury up 3-1.
Polk found the net a second time with 12:11 remaining, assisted by Chloe Nordyke, to narrow the gap to 3-2. From there, the Tomahawks went on a 6-0 run over the first and second halves to stretch their lead to 9-2.
The Warriors managed to create offensive pressure in the second half, despite a lack of goals. Nordyke notched a goal of her own with 7:54 left in the second half as Hall broke through an impressive goaltending effort by Maura Shirina (five saves), bringing the score to 9-3.
Maya Borden performed well in net for the Warriors, keeping the hosts in the game with nine saves against a perennial powerhouse in Glastonbury.
“It’s just a different level of play,” said Chaplin, whose team earned a 12-4 win at Rocky Hill on Tuesday to open the season. “[Glastonbury has] kind of ruled the conference for the last 10 or so years. They’re an experienced team. They’re ready to go right from day one, so we were the underdogs in this one. Yesterday, not so much.”
Inclement weather has shuffled local spring sports schedules this week. Monday’s snowstorm forced this contest to be rescheduled to Wednesday, creating a stretch of three consecutive games and four in five days to open the Warriors’ 2018 campaign.
“We’ve got another home game tomorrow because we ended up with three back-to-back games, which isn’t ideal,” said Chaplin, “but we’ve gotta start the season somehow.”
Hall’s season continues against RHAM on Thursday afternoon at home in West Hartford. Game time is set for 4:30 p.m. at Chalmers Stadium.
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It’s too bad the distracted driving campaign has to announced in advance rather than after the fact.
Forewarned is forearmed vs. lesson learned.