Rams Open It Up on Simsbury (Video)

Simsbury's tight zone defense presented problems for the Cheshire girls lacrosse team early in its non-conference match Saturday morning at Cheshire High.

The Rams eventually opened up the Trojans' defense late in the first half and pulled away in the second half for a 12-5 victory.

Cheshire's Jess Sudock, Maria Blois and Kathleen Kalbian each scored a hat trick. Blois' second goal was her 50th of the season.

"We actually came in anticipating a man defense with them and they started with a
zone," Cheshire head coach Dan Warburton said. "So it confused us a little bit. So we called a timeout, we've seen that type of a zone before, and we went over just what we wanted to do on offense. It was 3-2 at that point, and if we hadn't given up the late goal, we kind of threw it away there, even with that goal we outscored them 4-1 (from the timeout).

"Once we got a couple of goals, it just didn't make sense to attack their goal like that. We wanted to spread them out so that's what we went after."

Simsbury (9-5) opened the scoring with 21:27 left in the first half with a Samantha
Arnold goal assisted by Tess MacKay. Cheshire (13-3) evened it less than a minute later with 20:50 left on Sudock's first score and then took the lead as Blois cut in front of the goal mouth and fired in a shot unassisted past Simsbury goalie Kylee Lowndes (15 saves) with 15:24 to go.

Cheshire dominated possession throughout, even when it trailed early, but Simsbury made the most of its opportunities as Kayla Dietz tied it at 2 with 13:37 left and MacKay gave the Trojans a 3-2 lead unassisted with 11:57 left.

Then came the Cheshire timeout. The Rams responded with four consecutive goals.
First Sudock netted her second to even it at 3 with a drive directly on the goal with 10:30 left, and then she assisted Alexis Sansone with 9:49 to go for a 4-3 lead.

Kalbian's first came next with 4:58 left and Alyssa Hague made it 6-3 with 3:28 left.
Simsbury cut it to 6-4 on a length-of-the-field run by Jaime Matson with 2.1 seconds left, the late breakdown Warburton referred to.

"Possession was key," Simsbury head coach Kim Rabbitt said. "We weren't winning
the ball off the draw, we weren't winning ground balls. And those are two things that determine possession. We were a little off on that today."

The second half was all Rams as they outscored Simsbury 6-1 with the Trojans' only
goal coming as a team goal when Cheshire goalie Ashley Zane (11 saves) lost control of the ball and it dribbled over the goal line.

"We just realized what was on the line for this game," Blois said. "Basically home field advantage for states. So basically we were playing for that. (Their defense) threw us off a little bit, but we adjusted somewhat quickly halfway through the first half. We went back to our zone offense and it started opening up things. We kept winning the draw. We were fighting for it, they were fighting for it, too. The draw was the biggest part of the game."

Sudock started the second half scoring on a free shot with 23:30 to go to make it 7-4. After the Simsbury team goal, Blois scored on a free shot, her 50th, with 15:07 left for an 8-5 lead.

"It feels good," Blois said. "I didn't even know when he announced it. I cracked a smile. It's a good accomplishment I guess."

Kalbian then scored her second of the game and Cheshire's ninth on a rush directly on net with 14:43 left, and Blois completed her hat trick and 51 for the season on
another free shot with 8:30 left in the game for a 10-5 edge. Kalbian finished her hat trick at 5:39 and Hague's second closed out the scoring with 1:26 left.

"Second half we were able to spread the field and get them out of their comfort zone," Warburton said. "Once you open it up like that, you start getting things happening like (free possession shots). But you can't do that unless you get a lead. Once we established a lead, we were able to open it up and force them into that position. Because if they we're going to let us sit, we were up so."

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