Chatham Girls' Lacrosse Shuts Out Montville

MONTVILLE — The Chatham girls' lacrosse team remains undefeated after it routed the Montville Mustangs 13-0 on Tuesday.

The Cougars started fast, as Kathryn Maiorano and Meghan Murray scored two goals in the game's first minute. Murray would add her second at the 19:09 mark to make the score 3-0.

"[When we score early] it sets the tempo for the whole game," said Head Coach Deb Marriott.

Others agreed.

"It's very important to score early—we never want to be trailing," said Maiorano, who finished with two goals and an assist of her own.

The Cougars would dominate the first half in every statistical category. The first half yielded twelve draws, all of which were won by the Cougars.  

"Meg is awesome [at draws]; [Kelsey] Perselay is good at getting the ball to herself on draws," said Maiorano.

The Cougars would use the possessions they gained off of the draws to create a number of fast breaks in the first half that led to goals.

Essentially Chatham's' scorers could not be contained by a slower Montville defense. In addition to Murray and Maiorano's goals the Cougars would tag on nine more goals in the first half en route to an 11-0 halftime lead. Sophomore Jaclyn Leto scored three goals, while junior Cat McCutcheon, seniors Emma Ehler and Courtney Landolfe and sophomore Brittany Marriot would add goals of their own before the end of the half.

The second half was relatively uneventful as the Cougars controlled the clock for most of the second half after pulling their starters. Two goals were added by freshman Mary Kate O'Neill for good measure to push the score to 13-0.

Defensively, the Cougars were arguably the strongest that they have been at all season long. The Cougars snuffed out any threat of a Mustang attack at midfield with excellent stick checks and pass interceptions and ended up picking up 28 ground balls throughout the game, outworking a dejected Montville team.

Chatham looks to improve off of their impressive start to the season when it plays Thursday at Madison High School, a game Marriott described as "tough".

She has already begun implementing new offensive schemes and plays for the upcoming games, some of which were sampled in this game against Montville.

"We need a good focus practice tomorrow to get ready," said Marriott.