Chatham Girls Remain Undefeated After Leto's Big Effort

The Chatham girls' lacrosse team extended its win streak to six, defeating Kent Place by a final score of 17-7 at Haas Field on Thursday.                

Chatham took the early lead after senior Meg Murray sliced through the Kent Place defense and placed a bullet of a shot past the goaltender. Sophomore Kelsey Perselay would add another unassisted goal to make the score 2-0.

Kent Place would not be turned away so easily, however, as it would score the next two goals to tie the game. An irate Chatham Head Coach Deb Marriott called a timeout to rally her troops with 12:21 to go in the first half.               

 "I told them to get it together, they were playing sloppy," said Marriott. "Offensively, we were standing around and expecting a goal to happen."

The players agreed the team was not playing as well as it could have been.

"I think offensively we were losing the ball off of dumb mistakes," said sophomore Jaclyn Leto.

In the next three minutes, the Cougars would rally, scoring the next four goals of the game. Murray, Jaclyn Leto and Cat McCutcheon scored the goals to give the Cougars the momentum, and after a Kent Place goal temporarily broke the Cougars' flow, Leto and Perselay added goals of their own to give the Cougars an 8-3 halftime lead.                

Leto, in fact, emerged as the game's star player, tallying six goals and two assists.

"It was just her day," said Marriott. "They were face-guarding Kelsey [Perselay] and Meg [Murray] so we went to Jaclyn."

The second half yielded more Chatham dominance on both sides of the ball. Sophomore defender Amanda Berntsen and senior Paige McKenna furiously attacked the Kent Place scorers, forcing poor shots and passes. Berntsen used her lightning-quick closing speed in intercepting a Kent Place pass and turned it into an offensive possession.

"She has great defensive skills and she shuts people down," said Marriott.                

Goaltender Lydia Jenkins was solid in her effort, saving twelve of nineteen shots. Jenkins has been splitting time with fellow goalie Kelsey Fritts in an intense competition to start every game.

"She's stepping it up," Marriott said. "[The goalies] are really coming into their own.:

Leto piggybacked off of Marriott's statement.

"She's had great games in the past, and she did just as well today," she said.

With help from Leto and Murray the Chatham offense continued to flourish in the second half. Senior Kathryn Maiorano, sophomore Brittany Marriott and Perselay would add goals of their own in the second half. Once the Cougars had a safe lead, Marriott would use the remaining time to work with her team in a pressured environment on using a number of her different plays.

"We run the plays we think will work well—some are better than others," said Marriot.                

The Cougars look to remain undefeated as they play Oak Knoll High School on Saturday at Haas Field.