FAIRFIELD — Gretchen Livingston knows her girls lacrosse team thrives on its versatility.
Cony’s 16-year head coach doesn’t have a lot of one-trick ponies. Instead, her squad is loaded with players capable of filling a multitude of roles all over the field, something the Rams did Thursday in an 11-8 road win over Lawrence.
“We’ve got a bunch of versatile players who we can swap all over,” Livingston said. “On your average day, we can swap Maci Freeman, Azabell Assaf, Dinah Wadleigh, Andrea Richardson, Sierra Prebit, sometimes Reagan Bechard — depending on where they’re needed, they can go anywhere.”
That technical flexibility helped Cony survive in wet, rainy conditions. The Rams got goals from seven different players and shots from nine to earn their fifth straight win, a key win that put the team atop the Class B standings.
Although Lawrence (6-2) wasted little time taking the lead to start the game with Kaylyn Bourque scoring after just 37 seconds, Cony answered with goals at 23:24, 19:03 and 15:44 to take a 3-1 lead. The teams then exchanged goals twice with Bourque and Madison Chamberlain scoring for the Bulldogs and Abby Morrill and Bechard responding on each occasion for the Rams.
Cony (8-1) then took a three-goal lead for the first time with Freeman firing home as the clock expired in the first half. The Rams’ sixth tally provided momentum that Livingston’s team carried into the second half as goals from Assaf, Morrill and Thea Kanaris put the visitors up 9-3.
“I thought we could have had better composure overall, but I was really proud of the way we started the second half,” Livingston said. “Really, once they got that early goal, it was a wakeup call for us. We got it together and played well after that.”
Lawrence, though, fought back as three goals from Bourque and one from Chamberlain powered a 4-1 scoring run that put the home team down three with 13:14 to play. Yet Bechard put a stop to that run by scoring Cony’s final goal with 10:49 to play, and another tally from Bourque with 3:51 left was too little, too late.
Cony’s Dinah Wadliegh tries to split Lawrence defenders Haylee Niles (7) and Taylor Leclair (16) during a girls lacrosse game Thursday in Fairfield. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
Cony finished with two goals each from Assaf (three draw controls), Bechard, Morrill (one assist, three draw controls) and Wadleigh and one goal apiece from Freeman (one assist, five draw controls), Kanaris and Prebit. Bourque (six goals) and Chamberlain (two goals) rounded out the scoring for Lawrence, which also got an assist from Holly Bolduc.
The game was a bruising one with multiple Cony players heading to the bench with injuries in the first half. One of those players was Bechard, who took a knock to the head on her first goal but came back in the second half to give her team one last, much-needed score.
“They pulled me out because I wasn’t looking so good, but I saw my team struggling a little bit, and I wanted to be in there,” Bechard said. “I wanted to be in there to help my team, not just with scoring that goal but with communication, possessing the ball, getting back on D and doing all the little things.”
Cony’s adaptability helped it do that in key moments. Bechard did her job; Assaf moved between positions to attack and defend; Freeman and Morrill made key passes and controlled the draw; and all four, of course, put the ball in the back of the net.
“Lawrence is really tough, and we knew this wasn’t going to be an easy win or a definitive win for us today,” Livingston said. “We had to come in, execute and play hard, and that’s what we did.”
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