For the second straight year girl’s lacrosse opened the season against Holy Cross and for the second straight year the result was a loss.
Last year the Pirates fell 9-8 on the road. This year was a much different story; a 16-3 setback to the Lancers.
“In the beginning of the season it tends to be that we play a solid 20 minutes and then drop off for the rest,” head coach Laura Curran said. “We played a solid 20 minutes today, but we need to extend that to a full 50. We know where we have to go and that’s important.”
If the weather cooperates, the Pirates will host West Windsor-Plainsboro South on Friday morning, so there isn’t much time to dwell on what happened today.
Holy Cross opened the scoring, picking up a goal less than two minutes into the contest. The Lancers then made it 2-0 before the Pirates found the back of the net.
Cinnaminson got on the board with roughly 14 minutes left in the first half after keeper Emily Brennan made two straight point-blank saves to keep the game a two-goal deficit.
The first goal for the Pirate s came from Katie O’Connor, who would score again with under 10 minutes left after Holy Cross made it a 3-1 game.
“I really liked how we started out,” Curran said. “We were definitely challenging them. Our attack in the first 15 to 20 minutes was successful.”
“I knew the key to this game was possession. Holy Cross is a really fast team and their transition is beautiful. In the first half we did a good job of waiting for quality passes. In the second half we started to turn the ball over.”
Cinnaminson trailed 7-3 at the half as Casey Joyce got on the board for the Pirates.
The game was still within reach when the second half began, but the Lancers scored three goals in the first four minutes of the half to make it a 10-3 game.
“We need to be confident in our ball-handling skills. I think sometimes we underestimate how good we can cradle down the field,” Curran said.
“I hope that after seeing how much we turned the ball over we can clean up our passes on Friday. We were very nervous. Once we started to turn the ball over it became a domino effect. We can’t wait for the perfect opportunity for someone to be open. We gotta get rid of the ball.”
The Lancers added six more goals in the final 22-plus of the second half to take home the win 16-3.
The Pirates return to the field on Friday, April 1 at 10am vs West Windsor-Plainsboro South.
“We didn’t have any common opponents with them (West Windsor-Plainsboro South),” Curran said. “They are a bigger school and it’s not a division game, but it’s still a very important one.”
“We need to clean up the mistakes we made today so we are better on Monday against Moorestown Friends. I love playing out-of-division games because we can try new things and prepare for the bigger schools we will play in our division.”
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