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Girls Youth Lacrosse opens season

Date last updated 10:14 am Apr 17th, 2008

Girls youth teams split opening games with Duxbury The girls youth lacrosse program got off to a split start during the opening week of the 2008 season, losing two games in Duxbury, and beating two Duxbury teams that came to Cohasset. The Cohasset 13-and-Under (5th and 6th grade) Blue team was the first to take the field for '08, playing a Duxbury White team made up entirely of 6th graders. The team battled hard throughout in a game that was closer than the 8-4 final score would indicate. Madison Hagearty gave the Blue team an early 1-0 lead, weaving her way through several Duxbury defenders to fire a low, hard shot into the cage. The second Cohasset goal was started by a strong rush up the field from Victoria Bryan, who found Eliza Murphy for the goal. The Blue team defense was outstanding all day against a top-level offense with Shannon McGowan, Emily Robbins and Molly Fitzgerald making plays in front of goalie Olivia Blackburn. Blackburn had 8 saves on the day, including an amazing save at point-blank range on a penalty shot. Cohasset trailed by two at halftime, and ran into some bad luck and a strong Duxbury goalie as it tried to mount a comeback. The Blue team hit the post 4 times in the second half and was denied by the Duxbury keeper twice right in the front of the cage on shots by Fitzgerald and Murphy. Dagmar Seppala finally broke the ice by taking a great feed from Caty Gilman and blasting one home, and Kathryn Dunn finished the scoring with a powerful run up the sideline before bouncing a missile past the goalie. Next up, it was the Cohasset White 15-U team (7th and 8th graders), playing Duxbury White. The Cohasset squad got off to a sloppy start, surrendering a quick goal that was answered on a free-position shot from Alison Whelan; it was the 50th point of Whelan's youth-lacrosse career (42 goals and 8 assists), moving her into 12th place on the all-time scoring list for the girls youth program. Duxbury came back with four quick scores, two the direct result of poor Cohasset passes leading to turnovers and fast breaks. But Megan Green scooped up a missed feed and blasted home a shot from the outside, and Isabella Flibotte finished a fast break and the game went to the half 5-3 in favor of the home team. Duxbury expanded the lead back to four in the opening minutes of the half, before Whelan and Whitney Jaffe made it close. At this point, Cohasset seemed to have the momentum, controlling the ball in its offensive zone for long stretches of time, but missing several good scoring chances wide. Unable to convert, the squad eventually gave up two long fast-breaks that broke the scoring open. The game ended with Duxbury up 10-5. Sarah Evans made seven saves in the Cohasset net, backstopping a defense led by Alexandra Weissman, Ellie Tedeschi and Taylor Kennedy. Later in the afternoon in Cohasset, the 13-and-Under Cohasset Blue team (5th and 6th grades) was playing a Duxbury Green team made up entirely of fifth graders. (Cohasset and Duxbury play in the South Shore Lacrosse League, which encourages towns to divide players into even teams, not by grade or ability.) In this contest, Cohasset rolled to an easy 10-3 win. Taylor Frederick played her first ever game in goal and had two saves along with doing a nice job clearing the ball. The defense played very well with Maggie Littlejohn, Cassandra Lieberman, Anna McCarthy and Isabelle McCarthy leading the charge. On attack, Maddie Curley and Isabelle Dunne led the way with 3 goals each. Peyton MacNaught picked up a goal and an assist and Caroline and Valerie Farren both notched single markers. Playing her first-ever lacrosse game, Erin Driscoll completed the scoring with her first goal. Mackenzie Axelson and Christine Guinee controlled the majority of the draws for the White team, giving them a big advantage in time of possession. The Cohasset Blue 15-and-Under team (7th and 8th grades) then closed out the first day against Duxbury, in a seesaw contest that produced several outstanding performances. After Whitney Jaffe opened the scoring by canning a feed from Katherine Brown, Duxbury popped for three quick goals. Cohasset stormed back with a four-goal run of its own, with Allie Farren scoring twice, and Hope Kissick and Jaffe each scoring single markers. The Cohasset Blue team includes six girls from Hull this season ' because Hull's youth program is taking the season off to reorganize ' and that paid dividends after Duxbury drew to within one, as Lauren Geary converted a feed from Cassedy Gwynn. Another Duxbury goal made the score 6-5 Cohasset at the break. Jaffe converted an Alison Whelan feed to open the second half, but two Duxbury scores knotted the game at 7. From there, however, Cohasset dominated, due largely to a stellar goaltending performance from Stephanie Brierley, who made six of her nine saves on the day down the stretch to shut the door on Duxbury. Brierley was helped out by the solid defense from Amanda and Nicole Farren, Eloise Lucas, and Julia Canney. Abby Carrier's goal ' on a feed from Lauren Geary ' broke the deadlock, before Jaffe scored again and Allie Farren completed her hat trick. Sydney Blanchard answered a Hull score, Jaffe potted her fifth of the game and the team rode it out to a 12-9 victory that was more dominant than the score looked. Jaffe's five-point game moved her into second-place all-time among scorers in the girls youth program, passing Kaci Kucinski for the honor; she now has 115 points, and stands 74 behind the record of Gabriella Flibotte, who netted 175 goals and 14 assists during her stellar four years playing youth lacrosse. The Cohasset 11-and-Under teams (grades 3 and 4) had a bye for the first week of the season, but the entire youth program will be back on the field next week, playing on the road against teams from Hingham. For schedule details or more information, go to CohassetLacrosse.com.