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Gators Rebound With Big Victory Over FAA Foe Greens Farms

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The GA lax team got back to its winning way with a victory over GFA Monday afternoon. (Paul Silverfarb photo)

By Paul Silverfarb
Sentinel Editor

Head coach Melissa Anderson was a little concerned with her girls’ lacrosse team. Sure, Greenwich Academy has been charging out to big leads and coming way with victory upon victory throughout the season.

But on Saturday, the Gators fell behind early and never rebounded, falling for the first time this season. On Monday, GA was back in action against the same Greens Farms Academy team that narrowly upset the Gators in the FAA tournament last season.

This time around, it was Greenwich Academy that came out firing on all cylinders, building a quick 11-0 lead and beating the Dragons, 18-6, to right the ship.

“It felt really good,” GA’s Tate Horowitz said. “We just wanted to come out really strong after our loss on Saturday. That was one of our main goals. We wanted to play from the beginning and we did that really well today.”

During Saturday’s 13-8 loss to Choate Rosemary Hall, GA fell behind early and was forced to play catch-up throughout the contest. Anderson wanted her team to learn from its mistake and play a complete game, and the Gators did exactly that. Only 10 minutes expired from the clock in the first half and already Greenwich Academy was up, 7-0.

“We played on Saturday and it was a game that didn’t go our way,” Anderson said. “We were trying to overcome a pretty deep deficit. For us today, it was really important to get the momentum from the beginning and see if we can regain the confidence that we knew we should have.

“I am very proud of this team today,” Anderson added. “It’s really easy to get nervous and to think about what another team might bring their way. Composure is hard thing to teach because you can only test it by losing. On Saturday I told them that if we can learn from that experience and be a better team for it, then it will have been worth it. And it was worth it.”

Greenwich Academy’s Chapin Ruffa darts down the field and takes a shot at net during Monday’s game against GFA. (Paul Silverfarb photo)

Leading the way for Greenwich Academy was Chapin Ruffa, who finished with four goals. The duo of Courtney DeNaut and Karina Schulze each pitched in with a hat trick. Whitney Balanoff took home two goals, while Katie Goldsmith, Holly Johnson, Anna Khoury and Taylor Lane rounded out the scoring with one goal apiece.

“Greens Farms is a really dangerous team,” Anderson said. “We had a very close game with them last season and saw them this year in Florida and they were strong. We knew that they have a couple of threats, where if you don’t keep your foot on the gas, they could be dangerous. Today I think things were just working for us. It was nice to have that momentum, but we never really let up and that was huge. Our message at halftime was that they are a dangerous team and we still needed to keep the pressure on them. We were on the opposite end of that on Saturday.”

Both Schulze and DeNaut took home three assists for GA, while Goldsmith, Khoury, Lane and Schulze picked up one assist each.

After playing a game on Saturday in which Choate took a big lead early, it was the Gators that came out strong in the first half against GFA. Balanoff took the pass from Lane and got the scoring started 33 seconds into the contest. Not to be outdone was Ruffa, who scored her first of four with 23:09 showing on the clock.

Only 42 seconds later, it was Schulze who took the ball from Khoury and found the back of the net to make the score 3-0 and 58 seconds later it as DeNaut who took the unassisted goal to push the score to 4-0.

“It was really important because to get our momentum back and to get the energy,” Horowitz said. “We were just making sure that on defense we were using our feet first and not our sticks. We were communicating and trying as hard as we can. That helped us play so strong throughout the game.”

While the Gators were firing shots early and often, getting out to an 11-0 lead, the Dragons picked up the pace quickly as time was expiring in the first half. Within a 50-second span, Greens Farms tallied three goals. Kate Paliotta scored two of her four goals and Steph Wistreich added another goal.

The key to GFA’s success was the ability to win the draw-control and march down the field.

“I was proud of the poise they played with and the composure,” Anderson said. “The draws were really crucial for us today and that was something that helped us keep possession. For us it was really all about the draw controls. We have a lot of different players that can do the draws and we have different combinations that we like to try on the circle. Some times it’s about making sure you got the right combo in there. When Greens Farms was getting the ball, they were super dangerous. But when we gained possession, they were having trouble stopping our fast breaks.”

GA came out in the second half with the same intensity as it did during the first. The results were on the scoreboard, as Ruffa got the scoring started for the Gators 12 seconds into the half. A little over a minute later it was Schulze who found the back of the net, followed by Lane, who took the pass from Schulze and netted the goal.

With the victory, Greenwich Academy rebounded from its lone loss of the season. However, the Gators still have some key match-ups coming up. Yesterday GA battled St. Luke’s School. Results were unavailable at press time.

Tomorrow, the Gators will be back in action when they square off against FAA foe and cross-town rival Sacred Heart Greenwich. The game gets underway from Sacred Heart at 1:30.

“Any tough game exposes what we should work on and improve,” Anderson said. “We really want to continue to grow as a team this season. For us, we have things that we are definitely working on. We already have our list for the rest of the week.”

“I think we’re doing really well,” Horowitz said. “Hopefully we will keep doing well in our games and we will just grow as a team. We need to mesh well together and I think we will do that.”

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