Justin Nogueira looks downfield during a win over NW Catholic.
By BRIAN JENNINGS
STAFF WRITER
Suffering a 17-0 shutout at Glastonbury added insult to injury to Southington’s 12-loss season, but the Blue Knight lacrosse team managed to quickly forget about the at and focus on ending a 10-game losing streak.
With a four-point home win against NW Catholic, the team snapped a losing streak that on April 13. The win not only boosted the team’s confidence, but it also gave them something to look forward to for the remainder of the regular season.
Although they are out of contention for the Class L tournament, the Knights still have an opportunity to clinch a spot in the CCC tournament if they win both of their final two games.
“We just want to win the next game,” said Southington coach Ron Chase. “I’m not even thinking about that, and they’re not even thinking about that. We just want to win the next game just to get out of the season on a good note.”
The Knights will look to clinch a playoff berth this week when they host Hall (5-7) on Monday, May 15 and travel to Avon (7-6) for their regular season finale on Wednesday, May 17. Southington is currently 2-12 overall.
Loss at Glastonbury
MAY 11—The Knights began the week by suffering their 10th-straight loss and first shutout of the season after falling, 17-0, at Glastonbury on Thursday. The Knights trailed, 14-0, at halftime.
“It’s been a rough go at it this year,” said Chase. “It’s really tough to get kids to dial in and buy in when you’re constantly losing games. It’s okay to lose games and losing is part of life, but it’s how you lose.”
Three of Glastonbury’s players combined for 10 goals. Mike Hawkins paced the Tomahawks with four scores. Southington took 13 shots on goal and committed seven penalties.
Win vs. NW Catholic
MAY 13—Southing-ton’s 10-game losing streak was broken after the Knights earned their second win of the season with a 9-5 victory over NW Catholic at home on Saturday. Southington led, 6-3, at halftime.
“I’m really proud of these guys,” said Chase. “We could have just cashed it in for the season, and we didn’t. Obviously, there are a lot of things we have to work on, but overall, the kids came fired up and played hard the whole game.”
Matt Thompson (7 shots, 2 assists), Ethan Thomson (6 shots, 1 assist), and Ryan Mailhot (3 shots) paced the offense with two goals apiece. Matt Gundersen (1 assist) and Eli Steindl recovered six ground balls each.
Garrett Brown saved 19 shots in the cage. Southington took 39 shots on goal and committed 10 penalties.
For this week’s box scores, click here: (www.southingtonobserver.com/2017/05/16/weekly-scoreboard-for-the-may-19-edition). To contact sports writer Brian Jennings, email him at BJennings@SouthingtonObserver.com.