Rosie Gatto and Chelsey Pon put the squeeze on St. Bernard’s. (Photo by Rob Williams)
After walking off the field with an 8–8 tie against St. Bernard’s High School Monday, April 30, the Bromfield girls lacrosse team dominated Leominster High School Thursday, May 3, and Milford High School Friday, May 4, to put its current record at three wins, one loss, and one tie.
St. Bernard’s proved to be a challenging opponent from the start, as the Trojans relied mainly on penalty shots to rack up their score throughout the game. Sophomore Jenna Tomasello led the game off 1–0, but St. Bernard’s quickly retorted with a break-through down the field and a shot tying the score. The rest of the half modeled this exact series of play until St. Bernard’s punched in two consecutive goals, putting them ahead 5–4 at halftime.
Sophomore Jennie Ives, a first-year player, highlighted the second half with an attempt at the goalie position. She impressed her teammates, coaches, and spectators by allowing only three shots into the net and blocking the rest.
With only a few minutes left on the clock, sophomore Morgan Smith, in her rookie attack-position performance, rolled the crease to step up her game as well as the score to 7-6. Soon junior Rosie Gatto, following the same pattern, tied the game again to make it 7–7. Another goal by St. Bernard’s did not stop the Trojans from retaliating in the last few seconds, when eighth-grader Lindsey Hazel scored on a penalty shot to tie the game 8–8.
The hype from fighting St. Bernard’s put the Bromfield team into an aggressive and competitive state of mind to face Leominster High School two days later on their home ground, prevailing with a final score of 13–2.
Seventh-grader Stephanie Konop earned the first point of the game, followed by a series of goals scored by sophomore Laura Nocka, juniors Kylie Gordon and Gatto, and two successive goals by Hazel. “Everyone out on the field has shown a huge improvement on passing, catching, and cutting for the ball,” Gatto said. “The basic and fundamental skills of the game seem to really be clicking with all the players.”
The second half opened opportunities for Leominster to place two shots in the net, yet their defense continued to struggle. Coach Pam Alexander took a risk by altering the regular line-up, which successfully resulted in solid goals from freshman Lauren Tower and sophomore Chelsey Pon, as well as reoccurring goals from Gatto and Gordon.
One day later the Trojans opposed the Milford High School girls’ team for the second time of the season, beating them with another 15–0 win. Although the score remained the same as in their previous game against one another, the Trojans demonstrated an even stronger approach of playing than before.
“Boy, it was like a whole new team out there!” said Alexander. “Everyone is really getting it!”
Eighth-grader Tory Sowizral scored her first goal of the season off an assist given by eighth-grader Grace Tuttle. Other contributors to the final score included Gatto, Gordon, junior Emily Norris, sophomore Krystina Konop, freshman Lauren Tower, eighth-grader Lindsey Hazel, and Stephanie Konop.
The Trojans look ahead to their next game versus Algonquin on Friday, May 11.
