Conard hosted  Simsbury Thursday evening in West Hartford.

By Paul Palmer

At intermission Thursday night, the Conard boys lacrosse team looked like they had shaken off a poor start as they trailed Simsbury 6-5.

Just 12 minutes later, the game was out of reach as the Trojans scored 9 goals en route to a 16-10 victory over the Red Wolves.

“We had a string of not winning ground balls off the faceoff,” said head coach Matt Cersosimo. “We played defense for about three minutes straight at one point there. You do that against a good team like Simsbury and they are gonna put up points.”

The loss is Conard’s fourth in five games and has a team that started at 6-0 now sitting at 7-5.

The game began on an up note for the Red Wolves when Luke Shaffer scored his 99th career goal to tie things at 1. “I’ve been benefitting this year from us being a more balanced team,” said Shaffer, who is also a part of Conard’s state championship boys hockey team. “There are more players dodging and that has made for some easier finishes.”

Simsbury would add one more to take the 2-1 lead to intermission.

Before they could work up a sweat, Conard found itself down 5-1 courtesy of Gavin Bulger. He scored just 41 seconds in … then again 2:08 in … and again 18 seconds later for the natural hat trick and the four-goal lead.

The Red Wolves nearly got one back when Liam Alver clanked one of the posts and then had a golden opportunity to get back in the game thanks to a pair of strange plays. With just over 6 minutes to play, the flag was thrown for Simsbury having too many men on the field, but since Conard had control of the ball, the whistle was not blown. Though one Simsbury player did run off the field, another ran on to replace him, again putting them with 11 not 10 on the field – and again the officials saw it. When the whistle blew at 6 minutes, the Trojans were going to play down two men for 30 seconds. With just nine seconds left in the advantage Will Keever’s shot slammed off the post and came back out to the top of the formation where Jordan Lawson collected it and fired one home. Shortly after the advantage ended, it was Shaffer picking up an assist when he fed Torin McGoldrick who scored from off to the side of the net.

When Simsbury took another penalty at 4:11 it would be Shaffer scoring not just the game’s fourth but also his milestone 100th. “He is an awesome young man,” said his coach. “He works hard all year, puts in the hard work and time. I am really proud of him.”

The goal was set up by Nick Katsaros who took a big hit, kept possession of the ball, and hit Shaffer with the pass. Then with just 30 seconds to play in the half, Conard would pull even when Katsaros carried the ball behind the net, shielded the ball from a defender, circled to the far side and fired the tying goal in high. It seemed like a perfect end to the half but Simsbury had other ideas and managed to outmuscle the Red Wolves defense and score with just 7.5 seconds left to take the halftime lead.

Again, it was a quick start by the visitors that put Conard behind the eight-ball. Simsbury scored twice in the opening 2:50 to take the 8-5 lead. Brady Cersosimo started the comeback when scored :31 later and then :26 later it was Aiden Emery refusing to be denied as he barreled through defenders, absorbing hits, and laying in the goal to cut it to 8-7.

Then the roof fell in on Conard as Simsbury reeled off seven straight goals – including two in 11 seconds as the third quarter clock wound down – and it was now 15-7.

Lawson would add his second of the game for Conard in the fourth and Alver would do the same on a nice crossing play worked with Katsaros, but it was too little, too late. Simsbury added a goal and with 5:18 Jules Capone burst into the center of the attacking zone and converted Shaffer’s pass with a bounce shot to set the final score at 16-10.

The good news for Conard is despite the loss, and the struggles over the last 5 games, they did qualify for the post season with their win over Tolland on April 29. “I don’t’ think there was a letdown [after clinching],” Cersosimo said. “They knew the importance of this huge rivalry game. It is all about conference now.”

Conard gets back to work on the 6th when they take on 6-3 Farmington in a big CCC matchup.

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