Benchless Wayland Girls' Lacrosse Loses to Lincoln-Sudbury

Wayland coach E.J. Kluge knows Lincoln-Sudbury is always a tough match.

Without a bench and on the road, Wednesday's match was no different for the DCL (Small) Warriors as they dropped a 17-2 loss to L-S (5-1) and fell to 2-3 overall.

“All things considered it went as well as it could have,” said Kluge. “We were missing a lot of players, because of injury and vacation. The girls are pretty athletic so they were able to run well anyway.”

The L-S Warriors opened the game with a pair of scoring streaks.

The first streak, a five goal run, began at 24:42 in the first half with a goal off the draw by L-S junior Madison Acton. Receiving a behind the net pass from teammate sophomore Abby Quirk, junior Megan Griffin finished a bounced shot at 16:29 to put L-S up 5-0 and give L-S its fourth straight counter attack score.

“We are working on our picks and cuts,” said Quirk. “On transition we focused on communicating and seeing who should get the ball. Low attackers are communicating on who should cut up and down and helping bring the ball down the middle of the field.”

L-S's run was broken one minute later with an solo goal by Wayland senior Haley Nickerson. Calling off her fellow attackers, Nickerson cut into an opening from behind the net and hooked a side arm shot along the opposite side post.

Nickerson scored both of Wayland's goals off isolation plays.

“Haley looks to crease roll and that is her strength,” said Kluge. “She focuses on getting in, being scrappy, getting in front of the goal and getting shots off.”

Beginning a seven goal streak for L-S, freshman Caitlin Hullinger received a behind the net pass from senior Jenna Kabat and finished a deep horizontal cutting effort with a same side goal at 13:17 to put L-S up 6-1. With L-S shooting one of five in the final five minutes of the half, Kabat scored off a cut behind the defense to send the DCL (Large) Warriors into the half up 10-1.

“The person who has the ball is a threat to go to goal and draws the double team,” said L-S coach Deb DeJesus. “It is called a 'draw and dump.' You draw the girl then you dump the ball to your teammate.”

Despite another behind the net isolation goal by Nickerson to bring the score to 12-2 at 18:55 in the second half, Wayland was unable to slow the offensive attack of L-S. The DCL (Large) Warriors went on another five goal run to finish the game.

A bounce shot from Griffin at 1:02 gave the Blue and White a game finishing 17-2 lead.

“If you move the ball quickly and get the defense moving, you usually have someone open,” said DeJesus. “They found the person who was open.”

Quirk lead the Warriors in scoring with three goals and three assists. A fake shot and juke helped Quirk lose two defenders from behind the net and score her third goal at 13:05 in the second half.

“I was down low and we were trying to take more time before shooting so we could get a better angle,” said Quirk. “I faked high, shot low and got a better angle on the goalie.”

Wayland had trouble putting the ball on net with 15 shots, six on goal and two scored.

L-S senior goalie Katie Boyle had four saves with a 66.66 save percentage. Wayland junior goalie Rachel Massicotte had 14 saves with a 45.16 save percentage.

“Massicotte has helped us out big time in a lot of our games,” said Kluge. “Her presence on the field, it is hard to measure.”

L-S travels to play Wellesley High (3-0-1) at Wellesley College at 3 p.m. on Saturday, while Wayland will wait till 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday to play Tyngsborough High (0-1-1).