The 8th ranked Lady Tigers (12-2, 5-0) from (Daniel) Hand High School marched into Brookfield Saturday afternoon from Madison, CT, to give the 27th ranked Lady Bobcats a tough late season test. With the state tournament approaching, the game would be a good measuring stick for Brookfield (11-3, 8-2) to see where it stands with the upper echelon teams.
Hand raced out to an early 5-0 lead and showed Brookfield that they were worthy of their high ranking and that the Lady Bobcats would be in for a long game. In the end the Lady Bobcats had no answers for the highly skilled Lady Tigers and fell 20-9.
"They're such a good team," Brookfield coach Kary Rodgers said of Hand. "They have awesome stick skills."
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Hand used those stick skills on both offense and defense to give the Lady Bobcats all it could handle. Efficient passing to quick cutters in the offensive zone led to easy goals. Aggressive, physical defense with sticks up in the passing lanes in the defensive zone led to numerous turnovers.
After falling behind 5-0 Brookfield cut the lead to 5-2 on back-to-back goals from senior Jackie Brown and junior Kathryn Marron. Hand quickly responded with four straight goals to up the lead to 9-2 at the seven-minute mark.
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Brookfield got themselves back into the game by scoring four of the next five goals to cut the margin of deficit to 10-6 with just over one minute to play. Junior Emily Leonard scored two goals while Brown added her second and junior Katie Serio scored her lone goal of the game during the stretch.
"We've come a long way being aggressive," Rodgers said of her team's effort. "We've always got something we can work on."
Needing to finish the half strong to give themselves a chance in the second half, Brookfield fell prey to the Lady Tigers speed and ability to cause turnovers as they surrendered two back-breaking goals in the final minute to fall behind 12-6.
"I'd rather play a team like this then one we can beat easily," Rodgers said of the tough late season test. "It keeps us on our toes."
Hand opened the second half by scoring the first two goals before Brookfield's Marron netted her second of the game. Hand then scored two more before Leonard got free for a break away goal to make it 16-8.
The Lady Tigers kept up the pressure scoring three straight goals from there before Marron finished the scoring for Brookfield getting her third of the day.
Hand was led by senior Rebecca Church who had six goals, senior Maddie Willison, who had five goals, and senior Emily Jablonski, who had four goals.
Brookfield has two South-West Conference games remaining in the season including a crucial matchup on Senior Night Wednesday against Pomperaug.
"We need to win that one," Rodgers said of the senior night affair.
