The Hall girls lacrosse team hosted Southington in West Hartford on Monday.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

Hall girls lacrosse coach Kristen Mullady had a sense before the game even began that whoever won the draw would win the game between the Titans and Southington. Her team made her look like a genius as the unit of Anya Leshem, Luci Gwiazdoski, and Aliza Schlief did just that, taking 10 of 16 draws, including eight of 10 in the first half to help secure the 10-7 win for Hall.

“They do everything on their own in practice,” she said of the trio. “They keep fighting and when you have someone (Leshem) that can put the ball where she wants, that is a rare skill.”

There were not a lot of clean draws where one team or the other came away with the ball, but rather it was a battle in the air and on the ground. Leshem in particular was aggressive and effective in recovering the ball. “We (Leshem, Gwiazdoski, and Schlief) have been together since like fifth or sixth grade and we just know how each other plays,” said the junior.

The host side jumped out to a 2-0 lead, scoring twice in the opening quarter. The first was from Sam Shannon on an 8-meter and then Schlief converted on an assist from Gwiazdoski for the 2-0 lead. Gwiazdoski put in a strong individual effort to get the ball into scoring range before dropping off the pass to her teammate.

A defensive turnover at 3:33 led to Southington’s first goal of the game when May Parzych was able to convert. With :20 to go it was Gwiazdoski setting up Teagan Cohane for the late goal to give Hall back the two-goal lead.

Leshem would get her first of the game less than two minutes into the second when she put away the 8-meter shot. Southington then turned up the pressure all over the field on Hall. At one point pinning the defense in its own half as they tried to get the ball across midfield. It was the same story once the Titans set up on offense as the Blue Knights tightly marked Hall players, keeping the pressure up on the ball carrier and giving them little time to think.

Hall, for the most part, handled it well, running their offense, using lots of passes to players cutting into the middle. “All that high pressure from them is just going to make us better as we move on and face it from other teams,” Mullady said.

After Southington’s Sage Burns cut her team’s deficit to 4-2, it was Gwiazdoski answering just :27 later when she went high on her 8-meter chance to score. With just 24 seconds to play, the Knights had a golden chance to cut the Hall lead when they had an 8-meter opportunity. Instead of taking the shot they went for the pass down low, but Leshem was there and broke it up.

The second half started well for the Titans as :52 in Leshem found herself open down low to the goalie’s left. She called for the pass from Alice Krug, got it, and moved in as Southington goalie Maddie Murphy stood tall and moved forward to challenge. Leshem went high and dropped the ball over the goalie and into the net to make it 6-2.

Schlief – who was all over the field for Hall – scored her second less than a minute later and things were looking good for Hall. That was until Southington ran off the next three scores and a visibly tired Titan side struggled to stop them.

The first of the three came from Norah Bugnacki when she caught an 8-meter shot that went over the cage, came back around with it and beat goalie Corinn Fabas. Southington’s next score came on a great solo effort by midfielder Brooke Bannon who carried the ball in from midfield, split two Hall defenders, and hit the mark to make it a 7-4 game.

With under a minute to play, attack Juliane Bade pulled off a quick catch and shoot from a great setup pass and suddenly it was back to a two-goal game. “I think we got a little tired (in the third), and they picked up the momentum,” Leshem said.

It was still anyone’s game as they opened the fourth and final quarter of the game, and it was Hall’s Fabas and Southington’s  Murphy making the early statements with a pair of saves to keep it a two-goal affair. Two minutes in it was Schlief converting on her 8-meter try to make it 8-5.

On the ensuing face-off, the visitors let everyone know they were not going away quietly. Bade won the draw and teammate Noelle Castonguay raced down the field with the ball, finding Burns who had her shot saved by Fabas, who also made another low stop 35 seconds later to preserve the lead.

Southington would cut the lead to 8-6, when Bade won her fourth straight draw (third of the quarter) and at 5:20 was rewarded with a lane that let her drive a shot high over Fabas’ shoulder, and it was a one-goal game.

Then it was Hall and Leshem’s turn to put things away, starting in the draw. It took them 1:40 of possession time before Gwiazdoski scored again to make it 9-7, and then it was a solo effort from Leshem to seal things. Winning the draw, and getting the ball back in  the pocket of her stick, she carried down field, and with heavy defensive pressure on her, willed the ball into the back of the net for the 10-7 win.

“They (Southington) picked up their game in the third, but we bounced back,” Mullady said.

Hall’s 9-2 mark has them seeded eighth in a very competitive Class L. Next up is Lewis Mills, then Northwest Catholic on the 19th before a regular season finale with Conard on May 22. The Red Wolves, playing in Class LL, sit fifth with a mark of 11-1.

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