By Melanie Cane
After their first two home openers were canceled, the Wildcats Girls’ Lacrosse team finally hosted and completely dominated Fieldston April 6, winning 17-7.
The carnage began off the first draw, after which Rye Country Day scored every two minutes in the first half. Laura Baine won the draw and passed to Samantha Hirschberg, who passed to Natalie Sanchez who ran the ball to the goal and shot it straight into the net 30 seconds into the game. On the next draw, Sanchez scored again, shooting from the right side. Ryan Hammel scored off the next draw by bouncing it into the back of the net. Baine struck next on a pass from Isabella Dartnell. Then she scored again on a bounce shot. Senior co-captain Sarah Walker scored the next goal. Baine scored again on a penalty shot. Sanchez found the back of the net again on a pass from Hammel, who scooped up the ball as it was about to go out of bounds. After stalling for a minute, Hirschberg found the back of the net.
And that was just the first half, with Rye Country Day ahead 14-2.
With a no-mercy rule in lacrosse, it is up to the dominating coach and players to avoid embarrassing the losing team. Coach Georgette Summers played all her substitutes in the second half and the team worked on their stalling plays. The coach praised the girls for a remarkable job running these plays and maintaining possession. “We ran a stall for six minutes, which most teams have trouble doing much later in the season.”
Another remarkable thing about the matchup against Fieldston was Daisy Grossman, who’d never played in goal before, filling in for injured co-captain Jane Burdick and Katharine Brydson.
“Grossman was fantastic,” said Summers. “She played like a veteran.”
Baine led the scoring with five goals. Sanchez had four.
The Wildcats are now 4-3 on the season.
Captions:
Isabella Dartnell going for loose ball.
Alana Jones scoring her very first goal.
Natalie Sanchez running the ball.
