CHESHIRE – Home advantage and higher seeds did not work for the Cheshire Rams # 2 in the SCC Division I lacrosse tournament.
Both Cheshire teams lost the semi-finals on Tuesday with a No. 3 hand. The girls fell 17: 9 before the boys lost 9: 6.
As a result, the Rams will be ready by the time the CIAC state tournament opens while the Tigers move on to Thursday’s SCC championship games in West Haven.
The Cheshire Girls lost 17-3 to Guilford and were ready to bring the emotions of that game to the conference tournament.
And after the first five minutes it looked like it was a long day for Hand. The Rams scored within the first minute courtesy of senior attacker Raegan Bailey, who encountered little resistance in the cage and nailed an upper corner.
The hand defense looked dormant and there was no reason to believe that would change as the Rams knocked on the door for the next five minutes.
But it has changed. Hand took a 7-1 lead, led by striker Hadley Houghton and midfielder Lydia Doraz. The onslaught consisted of many high points that were well worth the role of the Houghton Thug.
The Tigers saw a lot of success behind the cage in this game, and this was a prime example. The ball moved behind the right post and flew through the air towards Houghton. She was marked just outside the crease, but exploded into the air, plucking the ball right in front of her defender.
She flicked her wrists and finished the job in a 7-1 win.
Despite the offensive strength of Houghton and Doraz, it was Hands’ defensive unit that made the first half so one-sided. The tigers played very physically, wrapping body on body around the crease and standing strong.
Cheshire’s strategy was to take it slowly and wait for the shot to open. With so many defenders, those shots were hard to find.
The Rams tried to create a separation in the zone with wraps around the fold, but the Tigers held their own and muscled the attackers away from the front of the cage.
The half-time buzzer went off and the scoreboard read 9-4 in favor of the Tigers and the smell of excitement hung in the air.
But that game was on the Rams’ lawn, and that was important in the second half. Cheshire’s patient approach was starting to pay off. As the game crept into the later minutes, fatigue set in and the openings the Rams were looking for appeared.
They pulled the score back to 11-9 and there were 11 minutes left to play. Bailey was at the heart of the comeback as she had scored five goals by that point.
What head coach Dan Warburton was telling his girls at halftime probably still rang in their heads.
“I told them if they wanted to play on Thursday (the SCC championship game) they would have to change what they were doing,” said Warburton.
The home crowd hummed even if there were interruptions in the game. The crowd rumbled in the stands and whistled for their hometown team, and the energy visibly made its way to attack in Cheshire. The Rams looked tapered even though they were in the middle of the second half.
But that energy just wasn’t enough. Shots flew for the Rams, but hand goalkeeper Ashley Wargo stopped anything that got in her way.
The Tigers took advantage of their opportunities and scored many insurance goals after their lead dropped to two. The game ended 17-9 and the Tigers stormed onto the field to celebrate.
“Losing 7-1 to a good team is a deep hole to climb out of. We fell into a hole that was difficult to climb out of today,” said Warburton.
As soon as the girls ‘team rushed across the field to celebrate, the boys’ teams began to warm up.
Hand shot quickly into the lead, scoring three goals in the first eight minutes. Two of these destinations were brought home by Will Flanagan.
His first came in orbit on the left side of the post as he crouched around a defender deep enough to fit under a coffee table. The defender’s check was completely in vain and Flanagan yanked it into the top left corner to make the 2-0 win.
“We didn’t get the little things right early on,” said head coach Mike Devine. “That kind of put us in a hole and we played catch-up all night.”
From there, both teams played solid defense. Each backline showed their physicality and athleticism, especially the Rams. There were many games in the first half where the Tigers knocked on the door but had nowhere to go with the ball after reaching the crease, resulting in key sales.
Revenue can completely change the dynamics of the game. The Tigers learned that the hard way at six minutes in the third quarter. The senior Cheshire attacker Brian Bouwman was on the X’s to the right and was closely manned. He took a look at the left island and found the attacker Evan Stern, who faked the wraparound far, then quickly cut again and finished in the nearby post.
The Rams stayed with the Rams for most of the third quarter when they brought the score back to 6-4. But they suffered the same fate that the tigers faced just minutes before. Just when it looked like the home side had all the momentum, the Tigers scored two quick goals, one again from Flanagan.
After four goals and only 12 minutes, the Rams could not overcome the deficit. Her offense stalled when it clicked in the fourth quarter. Almost all drives have failed.
Devine re-emphasized the little details as he talked about the final moments of the game.
“You have to get the little things right in these pressure cooker situations, and I sound very clichéd, but they just did that and we didn’t,” Devine said.
The Hand Boys play Fairfield Prep No. 1 in the SCC Championship on Thursday, while the Hand Girls play Guilford No. 1.