The Bromfield Trojan girls lacrosse team paused to honor its five departing seniors this week, before trouncing the Wachusett Regional High School Mountaineers 19-1 Tuesday evening at Harvard Park.
The five seniors are Izzy Katter, Izzy Planchet, Olivia and Bella Kehoe, and Sophie Bartram. This team holds a special place in the history of girls lacrosse at Bromfield, volunteer stats-keeper Ken Hoggins told the assembled players and their parents at a ceremony before the game. The team has been to state playoffs twice and won the Central district championship twice before the pandemic shut down competition in 2020. And the team, undefeated in 10 matchups, will likely be a contender once again when district playoffs get underway in June.
The story of Tuesday’s game against Wachusett was a familiar one. Bromfield’s Katter scored first on an assist from Chloe Scornavacca 2 minutes into the game. By the middle of the second quarter Bromfield had a 10-0 lead and the clock was allowed to run nonstop between goals, per MIAA rules, for the rest of the game. Wachusett scored once in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, falling to Bromfield for a second time this season.
High scorer for the day was Olivia Kehoe, with five goals, followed by Bella Kehoe and Katter with four apiece, Planchet with three, junior Tally Dutkewych with two, and freshman Kristin Podgorni with one. Katter was on fire, accounting for nine of the team’s 29 shots. Junior goalie Peyton VanDorpe was credited with three saves. And Dutkewych and Planchet reached career milestones, each taking home a yellow game ball. Dutkewych reached a career high of 100 points, while Planchet reached 400 and won her 400th faceoff, or draw control, in lacrosse parlance.
“They make it look easy, but it’s not easy,” Coach David Planchet said after the game. With two games left in the regular season, he is already looking ahead to the playoffs. “We are going to face a team, whether it’s in the Central Mass playoffs or in the state playoffs, that’s going to test our mettle,” he said. “As a coach, all I can do is hope that [the team’s] experience and that grittiness that they have, will pull them through [that moment]. It’s going to happen; it’s just a matter of when.”
The afternoon ended on a celebratory note as parents, players, fans, and family dogs gathered following the game beside McCurdy Track, it’s chain-link fence decked out with blue and white balloons and portraits of the players, to celebrate the departing seniors with ice cream and cupcakes.
