Anna Laone attacks the goal during an 18-13 win over NFA that clinched a postseason berth.
By BRIAN JENNINGS
STAFF WRITER
The Lady Knight lacrosse team’s six-game hot streak was snapped by a loss at the start of the week, but the girls bounced back with a lopsided, 18-13 home victory over NFA Thursday. The seventh win of the season was good enough to qualify Southington for the Class L tournament for the first time since 2014.
“Our record is where we want it to be right now,” said Southington coach Jill Pomposi. “Our next goal is to get a home game for the tournament, but we need to play each game with focus on the present.”
This season has been a big turnaround for the Knights after just three victories in 2016. Pomposi credits the program’s rapid success to offseason dedication.
“We don’t have to focus on running nonstop during practice,” the coach said. “That’s really helped us to be able to fine-tune more things that we haven’t been able to previously.”
Now, the Knights will turn their attention toward better seeding in the state tournament this week when they begin a four-game road trip starting with Rockville (2-5), South Windsor (6-2), and Glastonbury (4-4) this week.
South Windsor is currently eighth in Class L. Southington is currently 7-1 overall and tied with Conard for second place in Class L standings behind Greenwich (9-1).
Loss vs. Farmington
APRIL 24—The Knights suffered their first loss of the season with a 21-7 decision against Farmington to start the week. The Knights trailed, 10-3, at halftime, as the Indians went on an 8-0 run to end the first half.
Farmington’s Ali Sheehy (7) and Alma Thompson (6) combined for 13 goals.
“They did not stop,” said Pomposi. “They were going hard from the beginning on every single possession. They were shooting it hard and taking advantage of every mistake that we made. Even if we capitalized on their mistakes, they were always capitalizing on our mistakes.”
Kilgore (2 shots, 1 assist) and Emily Gibney (2 shots, 1 assist) led the offense with a pair of goals each. Lynch won six draws and recovered three ground balls.
Wells saved 10 shots in the cage. Southington took nine shots on goal.
“We got deflated and gave up a little bit,” the coach said. “That was first team we played this year that has beaten us in the past couple of years. So, I don’t know if it was a little bit of a mental thing or if we were overly confident because we have been winning, but every game is a new game, and we didn’t put it all together.”
Win vs. NFA
APRIL 27—Southington bounced back three days later with a 10-6 lead at halftime with the help of a trio of 3-0 rallies in the first half. The Knights put the game out of reach with a 7-2 run in the second half.
The Wildcats didn’t go away quietly with a 5-1 rally of their own in the closing five minutes of the contest.
“We gave them a little too much room in the middle of the second half and took advantage of that,” said Pomposi. “They were shooting hard from the get-go, and when we gave them enough space, they were in.”
Sarah Mafale (10 shots) paced the offense with five goals. Addie Kilgore (8 shots) backed Mafale with four goals.
Nicky Doran dished out three assists. Kilgore and Brook Lynch recovered four groundballs each.
Julia Wells saved 10 shots in the cage. Southington took 31 shots on goal.
“We had a lot of people contributing on the attack that haven’t recently, either because they’ve been back or because we haven’t been subbing as many people as we subbed today,” the coach said. “We also did a really good job of going after the 50-50 balls.”
For this week’s box scores, click here: (southingtonobserver.com/2017/05/02/weekly-scoreboard-for-the-may-5-edition). To contact sports writer Brian Jennings, email him at BJennings@SouthingtonObserver.com.