The St. Joseph girls lacrosse team defeated Brien McMahon, 11-5, on Saturday for its second victory of the season.
“The goal this year is, St. Joe’s girls has not made states in ten, fifteen years, so our goal this year is to make states,” said St. Joseph coach Leeland Gray. “We need seven wins.”
Senior captain Robyn Pelletier and sophomore attacker Abbey Ivanovich each scored three goals.
Sophomore Kate Condron had two goals for the Cadets (2-3).
Senior captain Susie Vazzano scored a goal, as did Tricia Diaz and Amanda Lopez.
Five players scored for the Senators; Anna Bean, Hannah Towey, Katie Gatt, Chloe Ortolano and Isabel Vineyard.
“The goal is to make every girl improve throughout the year,” Gray said. “We basically have four or five go-to players that can all score. In another two or three weeks hopefully you’ll have to worry about seven or eight of our players.”
A free position shot from Lopez got St. Josephs on the board. The Senators followed with a barrage of shots, but Emily Buccigross in net for the Cadets held her ground.
Ivanovich then found Condron for a bounce goal with nine minutes to play in the first half, giving the Cadets a 2-0 lead.
Pelletier followed Condron less than a minute later to make it 3-0.
The rally continued, as Vazzano scored high over McMahon goalkeeper Jane Matson to make it 4-0.
Mikeala Trafecante then found Pelletier for her second goal to make it 5-0, but Ortolano got McMahon on the scoreboard with a bounce shot.
With less than a minute until the half, the Cadets scored two more times. First Pelletier fought off a defender and shot high into the left corner of the net to make it 6-1. Then Lopez weaved through traffic and deposited the ball past Matson, giving St. Joe’s a 7-1 lead at the half.
McMahon attacked the net at the start of the second half. Towey 1:17 in to make it 7-2. Gatt followed with a high goal over Buccigross.Eighteen seconds later, Bean scored on a bounce shot prompting Gray to take a timeout.
“I said do what you do in practice,” Gray said. “It’s all ground balls, passing and catching so just stay with the basics, get back to the basics and relax.”
The Cadets responded with goals from Diaz and Condron to make it 9-4 halfway through the frame.
A few minutes later, Ivanovich sealed the deal with two goals in two minutes to make it 11-4 with nine minutes left to play.
In the upcoming week, St. Joseph will take on Darien and Greenwich, two FCIAC foes.
“Sometimes it’s not about winning the game it’s about improving,” Gray said. “Next week is going to be about improvement.”