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05/16/2015 12:00 AMIn the fast-paced game of lacrosse, sometimes a team has to make adjustments on the fly. For the Guilford girls’ lacrosse squad, its quick-thinking ability propelled the Indians to yet another victory in what’s proved a promising season.
The Indians hosted Sacred Heart Academy on May 12 and came away with a 17-6 decision that marked Guilford’s fourth straight win and ninth overall. Despite being down through the evening’s first 10 minutes, the Indians changed up some facets of their game-plan to rally past the Pacers for a comfortable halftime edge en route to the win.
“SHA looks to go to the goal right away, so we made some defensive adjustments, especially with our midfielders, and that made the difference,” said Head Coach Steve Jewett. “It feels good to be at 9-3. The season is a progression, so we want the girls to learn things as we go. Throughout the year, we concentrate on working between the 30 meters. We’ve had some strong conditioning in practice, so we feel strong right now, plus we are passing well as a team.”
Senior midfielder Edy Moritz led the Guilford offense with four goals and while junior Emma Jewett contributed three scores from the midfield slot. Rounding out the goal scorers were junior attacker Alex Fitzgerald (3), freshman Olivia Clarke and senior Phoebe Kebabian (both with 2), plus senior defender Katrina Niedziela and senior midfielder Abby Jeppesen (each with 1). Recording assists were Niedziela (3) and Fitzgerald (2); along with one ach from Moritz, Jewett, senior attacker Nicole Raccuia, senior midfielder MacKenzie Cattaruzza, and junior defender Amy Puchini. Guilford outshot the Pacers 27-14 as sophomore Brooke Distante made nine saves in net.
“We looked to have a lot of assisted goals in this game and we got just that. We wanted to hold them to only five or six goals and we also earned that,” said Jewett. “We only had about three free-shooting space fouls in this one, so we were able to give our goalie good support. In the beginning of the year, we had about nine or 10 of those type fouls in a game.”
Moritz scored for Guilford (9-3) just 15 ticks into the contest for a 1-0 lead after SHA (3-10) was called for a yellow card on a hit to the head. The Pacers then evened the score 30 seconds later to ignite a brief 3-1 run to go ahead 3-2 as 10 minutes went by in the opening half.
“We knew they had some goal scorers in Alex Ryan and Kacee Neubauer and not as much depth as we had, so our plan was to tire them out,” said Jewett. “We trapped them early in their zone with our man ride and doubled the ball between the 30 meters. This worked well, allowing us to create turnovers and capitalize with offense.”
From there, Guilford began to heat up with the ball in its grasp by going on a 6-0 tear on its way to a strong 12-4 command at intermission.
“SHA has a couple strong midfielders, but we did a great job of clearing the ball and running hard, so it was easy for our offensive players to take hold,” said Jewett. “They played a soft zone most of the game and we were able to pass around a lot through it to score.”
The Indians found the net five more times after the break with Kebabian taking ownership of two. Those five were more than enough as Guilford’s defense stood firm and limited the visitors to only a pair of tallies in that frame to secure the team’s sixth victory in seven games against SCC competitors.
“The girls really enjoy each other’s company, like talking about lacrosse, and watching film of it,” Jewett said. “Sometimes I have to adjust or correct some habits, but they are a pretty experienced bunch. We graduated some good defenders after last year, though the younger defensive players have fit right in.”
In the midst of his second year at the helm for Guilford, Coach Jewett said that many of his more seasoned players are truly settling into his style of play. He added that a true symbol of teamwork has also played a big role in the Indians’ prominence—especially when they maintain possession.
“Part of it is them grasping my system, but we have some veteran players on defense like [seniors] MacKenzie Cattaruzza and Katrina Niedziela. The girls know each other and don’t go necessarily right to the goal on offense, but they make the passes to the open man, which is giving the rest of the team better shooting opportunities,” he said. “Earlier on this year, we did a lot of 1-on-1 drills, but now we are doing more drills where the goalkeeper has to move around more and adjust. Our goal on offense is to have everyone involved.”
Guilford has shown signs that it is ready to ascend to the next level, including knocking off two-loss Lauralton Hall by a 15-8 final on April 30 following a close 11-9 defeat to two-time defending SCC runner-up Hand a week earlier.
“We’ve been tested a couple of times versus good teams like Lauralton, Hand, and Branford [which Guilford defeated 10-8 on April 21],” said Jewett. “We had those good tests, but I don’t want them to be surprised by anything. We are just taking things one game at a time, but I feel they have the sense that they can beat any team on any given day.”
From the Sidelines
The Sacred Heart Academy win was the seventh time in their first 12 games that the Indians held an opponent to 10 goals or fewer.
Thirteen of Guilford’s 17 goals in the SHA contest came assisted.
Steve Jewett is assisted this year on the bench by Kelly Jensen and Jess Joline.
Edy Moritz, Katrina Niedziela, and Nicole Raccuia are the Indians’ captains for 2015.