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05/21/2014 12:00 AMThe North Branford girls' lacrosse team didn't show off its best effort on either offense or defense last week and dropped three games to fall to 5-8 on the year. The Thunderbirds were defeated by Old Lyme 22-8 on May 12 and followed that up with a 12-6 loss at Canton and a 17-6 defeat to Old Saybrook. North Branford was troubled by slow starts in each loss, scoring just three goals in the first halves of all three games.
"The law few games, we've just started slow," said Head Coach Lori Connelly. "They were slow to get out here and it's something I got on them for, but we need to pick it up faster and get into the game."
Against Old Lyme (7-2), the Wildcats jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the T-Birds even gained possession of the ball. Senior captain Cassidy Norton was unable to corral any draws early in the game and Old Lyme's high-octane offense went to work. The Wildcats filtered players in and out of the attacking zone with relative ease and often had somebody wide open in front of Taylor Delaney in goal.
The Wildcats pushed their lead to eight before North Branford finally got on the board. Junior Allie Sanzari took a pass from freshman Sydney Hogan and found the back of the net. Alyssa Doran netted one seconds later, but Old Lyme took momentum right back with four straight goals to make it 12-2. Hogan then gave North Branford its third goal right before the half after stealing a pass from Old Lyme goalie Meredith Britton and scoring on a low shot.
Sanzari opened the second half with her second goal of the game, but Old Lyme responded once again with four goals. However, they were fewer and further between as North Branford maintained more possession than in the first half. It was able to do that thanks to a tactical change on draws due to Norton's nagging injury.
"Norton is battling an injury and we just haven't worked out the kinks with that yet," Connelly said. "Kirsten Madoule is only a sophomore and in her first year playing for us, but has been stepping it up and won a lot of draws. Sanzari is quick to getting in on the draws and having Norton on the circle and running in just worked better than having her on the draw."
Winning multiple draws in the middle of the second half led to goals by Doran, Erin Sheehan, Norton, and Sanzari to bring North Branford to eight for the game, but it was unable to score the rest of the way as Old Lyme played keep away.
Delaney stopped seven of Old Lyme's 29 shots. North Branford put 22 shots on goal and had four assists on its eight goals.
Later in the week, against Canton, Norton scored three goals, Hogan had two, and Melissa Martin scored once while Delaney made 13 saves. Versus Old Saybrook, Delaney stopped nine shots while the T-Birds had five different girls score.