The 7th seeded Brookfield girls lacrosse team's stellar season came to an end Monday night in a 15-11 loss to the 2nd seeded New Canaan Rams at Dunning Field in New Canaan.
"Going into the game against New Canaan we all knew it was going to be really tough," Brookfield coach Kary Rodgers said after the game. "I told the girl's that I didn't care about the score of the game, I just wanted them to walk off the field knowing they didn't give up and played at 100 percent the whole game."
The Rams came out of the gate quickly Monday, scoring four goals in the first four minutes, with Anjalie Chrisitie scoring the first three. She scored the first goal less than two minutes in on an assist from Olivia Hompe, a second just 30 seconds later on a free positon, and a third off a nifty pick and cut that would have made a basketball coach proud.
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"We've been working on our motion offense lately and it really helped us open up some lanes today," Christie said.
The Rams' fourth goal was the result of a sprint almost the length of the field, featuring crisp passing along the way, that resulted in a goal by Kacey Pippitt to make it 4-0.
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New Canaan continued to score with Elizabeth DeTour, Christie again and Hompe, making it a 7-0 game with over eight minutes still remaining in the first half.
Brookfield's Kathryn Marron scored the first of her four goals, with Emily Leonard scoring 30 seconds later to make it 7-2, but there was Christie with her fifth goal to give the Rams a six-goal lead. Erin Fessler then made it 9-2.
But Leonard, after a second goal by Marron, went almost the length of the field, dodging, faking and plain out sprinting for her second of three on the night to make it 10-4 at the break.
The Bobcats picked up the pace in the second half.
Christie opened the half with her seventh goal for the Rams as the teams traded scores. New Canaan continued to maintain a 6- to 8-goal edge, but then Brookfield made a late run. With a little over six minutes remaining, the Bobcats scored four consecutive goals to close to within five of the Rams. Jackie Brown made it 15-11 with four and a half minutes left, but that was as close as the Bobcats would get.
"We defininetaly gave New Canaan a scare by outscoring them 7-5 in the second half," Rodgers said. "We put everything we learned throughout the season into this game and I couldn't have been happier about how they played. We finished a great season stronger than even we thought we could. Anything is possible in the game of lacrosse and given a few more minutes on the clock, I believe that if we kept playing like we were we could have moved on to the semifinals."
