South Windsor Girls Lax Suffers First Loss of the Season

In its first true test of the season, the South Windsor High girls lacrosse team got a dose of what life would be like against a top team in the state, falling to Simsbury High 13-4 on Wednesday afternoon.

Up until that point, the Bobcats had pretty much had their way with their competition, outscoring opponents 49-13 in their first four games.

Simsbury, which suffered a tough 14-13 overtime loss to Ridgefield on Monday, scored as many goals against South Windsor as the Bobcats had yielded all year.

There was no sign of a letdown for the Trojans (3-1) on Wednesday.

“One great thing about this team is [its] ability to compartmentalize,” Simsbury head coach Kim Rabbitt said. “The Ridgefield loss was the Ridgefield loss. It’s over and it’s done. We came back and tweaked a couple of things in practice yesterday that we felt we needed to work on and they get that.”

Trojans attacker Tess Mackay led the way, with seven goals and an assist, while Ari Arciero had three goals, Kayla Deitz had a goal and three assists, and Jaime Matson and Meg Corcoran each had a goal apiece.

Tori Russo scored two goals for South Windsor, while Bridget Kelly and Emma Richard each scored once.

Simsbury showed its strength early, taking a 4-0 lead after just 10 minutes had passed in the first half. The Bobcats never really found their footing, looking a bit intimidated on Simbury’s home turf and falling behind 7-2 by halftime.

The Trojans showed their trademark speed coupled with ball movement that was unlike anything the Bobcats had seen all year.

“That is one of our strengths this year is in our midfield and transition,” Rabbitt said.

In addition, Simsbury’s defenders effectively moved South Windsor’s attackers away from prime shooting lines.

“I was a little nervous about my defense this year [but] it’s working well,” Rabbitt said.

All of which was enough to throw South Windsor a little off its game in the early going.

“We became flustered,” South Windsor head coach Ed Duclos said. “They did some things we hadn’t seen this year that got us rattled. ... For some young players, it’s their first time against a really solid team. ... I thought that our offense would handle the ball better than we did.”

But the Bobcats settled down and played a much better second half, as Richard pulled South Windsor to within 10-4 with 3:30 left in the game, before Simsbury scored three more goals to round out the scoring.

Duclos credited the play of goalie Meg Brault, who had 10 saves and a number of aggressive, heady plays that disrupted Simsbury’s vaunted, high-octane attack.

“When we get that type of goalkeeping from her, which we can expect, it helps us so much,” Duclos said.Simsbury, meanwhile, took another step toward being considered an elite team in the state.

“It’s a great group of experienced players,” Rabbitt said.

The Bobcats will look to get back on track against Farmington on the road on April 26, while Simsbury takes on Southington, also on April 26.