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05/08/2016 12:00 AMThe athletes in the Morgan girls’ lacrosse squad’s senior class did something they had yet to accomplish last week when they defeated Old Saybrook for the first time in their Huskies’ careers. On May 3, Morgan went into their Shoreline Conference rival’s house and won the game in overtime as senior captain Catlen Goss scored 1:46 into the extra session for an 11-10 victory.
“Old Saybrook has been an excellent team over the past four years and this group hadn’t beaten them. We also hadn’t beaten [Haddam-Killingworth] and we did that earlier in the year,” said first-year Head Coach Jim Naccarato, whose team is 6-5. “We played one of our best games of the year and the girls are playing extremely hard. Catlen and Josie [Sullivan] have been great on our attacks and Catlen is so skilled and has an amazing desire to win I have never seen before.”
It was a tale of two halves, plus an extra period, as the Huskies and Rams both came out of the gates on fire. The two squads traded goals throughout a fast-paced first half that ended tied 8-8 with the offenses dominating play. After the break, the teams settled down and the match became a defensive battle that saw Old Saybrook (7-3) hold a one-goal advantage at 10-9 with less than two minutes left in regulation. The Huskies were able to gain possession and moved the ball down the field when Goss sliced through the defense and scored with 1:05 to play, knotting the game at 10-all to force overtime. Morgan then won on Goss’s goal in sudden-victory session. Goss led all scorers with seven goals and one assist, while Sullivan finished with two goals and one assist and Madison Seeger and Emily Davis each had a goal apiece for the Huskies.
“This was a great game with each team going goal for goal and we made a play at the end to tie it. I told them that possession is the key in overtime and Catlen got the ball and did what she always does, which is score, and we won a big game,” Naccarato said. “Also, our defense has been outstanding. I ask a lot of Meghan Lindsay’s leadership and she is our anchor on ‘D.’ She stepped up, along with the other girls on that end, especially in the second half. We have been using a rotation at goalie this season with freshman Melanie Coretti and Kitty Shortt playing and now we have a first-year player, [junior] Julia Zirkelbach starting. I have to give them a ton of credit for stepping up and playing a really tough position that nobody wanted to play.”
Then on May 5, Morgan traveled to Somers to face the non-conference opponent and came out on the opposite side of an 11-10 final. As in the Old Saybrook game, Morgan went back and forth with Somers (10-2), although the Huskies couldn’t net the equalizer this time around. Goss scored five goals, Sullivan had two, plus Davis, Savannah Skidmore and Georgia Nye each scored a goal. Seeger and Skidmore both contributed an assist.
“We knew this was going to be a tough game on the road against a good team. We didn’t know a lot about Somers, but they had beaten some good teams and the girls played hard in a physical game, but in the end, we just couldn’t pull it out,” Coach Naccarato said. “As tough a loss as it was, I was proud of the girls’ effort and we were a play short and one goal short. We have five games to go, but we don’t want to look too far ahead. We play [Haddam-Killingworth] next week and they will be looking for revenge [after the Huskies beat the Cougars 18-16 on April 14] and we are excited to get North Branford [which beat Morgan 20-5 on April 19] again and change the score around this time.”
At 6-5, Morgan is ranked 11th in the Class S State Tournament standings. The Huskies need one more win to make it or they can qualify by finishing in the top 16 of the rankings.
From the Sidelines
Jim Naccarato is in his first year as head coach of Huskies’ girls’ lacrosse after serving as an assistant for the past nine seasons.
Mari Beth Simmons and Lainey Congdon are Naccarato’s assistant coaches. Both are former Huskies’ players and Congdon is also the head coach of the JV team.
The Huskies’ captains this season are seniors Catlen Goss and Meghan Lindsay.